7 March 2025, New York - Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States by H.E. Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, at the United Nations Group of Friends on Gender Parity
**Group of Friends on Gender Parity**
**7th March 2025, ECOSOC Chamber**
_Check against delivery_
Mr. Secretary General, Excellencies,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
Gender parity is a cornerstone of EU policy. The seeds were planted in the founding Treaties, and spill over into our current legislation and policy measures.
Gender equality is not only a matter of social justice. It also is an economic imperative. Improved gender equality has the potential to decrease labour and skill shortages, reduce the need for social expenditure and hence boost the economy. The European Institute for Gender Equality estimates that, in the EU, improving gender equality would lead to an increase in EU GDP between 1.95 and 3.15 trillion euro by 2050.
The economic empowerment of women is one of our key priorities. We are combatting gender employment and pay gaps. In the EU, the gender employment gap stands at 10 percentage points, while the gender pay gap stands at 12,7 percent. That is why we have taken measures that facilitate labour market participation of women throughout their life course. This includes the promotion of equal sharing of care between women and men through non-transferrable parental leave combined with affordable quality care services. In order to promote equal pay, we adopted rules on pay transparency. In the private sector, we adopted targets for gender balance in company boards. The EU also tackles sectoral segregation, for instance, by taking measures to encourage girls to aspire to a career in STEM.
Furthermore, the European Union is firmly committed to advancing women’s equal representation in political decision making at all levels. Gender Parity is about standing by the principles of fairness, equal representation, and effectiveness of organisations, which should not be debatable. It is sometimes needed to dismantle existing, but often unacknowledged structures that have been discriminating women for decades.
Female leadership is increasing in the EU. We are proud that the president of the European Commission, the president of the European Parliament, the president of the European Central Bank and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs are all women. In addition, 48 percent of middle managers in the European Commission are women.
Finally, the EU strongly supports you, Mr. Secretary General, in advancing the System-Wide Strategy on Gender Parity and gender parity across the UN system. We welcome the measures taken to foster gender parity in the UN. However, as we celebrate the UN’s 80th anniversary, a female Secretary-General has never once led the organization in all those years, and only four women held the position of President of the General Assembly. This is a highly regrettable fact. The EU strongly urges UN member states to stay true to this commitment and actively support its implementation. We believe member states should walk the talk and consider nominating women candidates.
I thank you.