European Women’s Forum 2018
[Brussels, 21 June 2018] Last week we organised our second European Women’s Forum, a dynamic four-day feminist event organised by and for European Women’s Lobby members. Participants came together to celebrate the successes, hear inspiring stories from movement leaders, and participate in interactive awareness-raising actions. This year’s focus was on women (RE)shaping power!
The Forum saw us launching our 50:50 Women For Europe, Europe for Women campaign to achieve equal representation of women and men, parity democracy in the European Parliament in the 2019 elections and in the appointment of the new college of European Commissioners. During an event in the European Parliament which opened our European Women’s Forum, we convened our membership, EU policy makers, and private-sector influencers. Keynote speakers and grassroots activists shared their experiences, information and insights on how women can (RE)shape power in Europe and globally. We also launched a petition, to sign and share here.
Minna Salami, one of the key note speakers emphasised "The campaign for equal representation in the European parliament must not only be a campaign for equal representation of “women” but of “women of all backgrounds” within and beyond Europe’s borders. The more the campaign acknowledges these critical factors, the more people it will mobilise toward transforming Europe’s patriarchal structure, which is of course what all of us are here to do." Read Minna Salami’s key note speech here
Find some really great pictures of the event in our Flickr album by photographer Lyse Ishimwe by clicking on the picture below:
During our governance meetings, Board and General Assembly, the participants planned, co-created, discussed and exchanged on our strategy for 2020 and shared best practices.
Find some pictures of the governance meetings in our Flickr album by clicking on the picture below:
At our annual General Assembly on 9 June, EWL members adopted five Emergency Motions. These motions, put forward by EWL National Coordinations or European Wide Members, call on EWL and its members to take actions and position on a number of issues that are of strong importance to women’s rights. We adopted five emergency motions different questions, including on childcare, anti-feminist extremism and populism, women and girls impacted by the conflict in Syria and rape.
We also had elections for our President, Executive Committee and Board of Administration and said an emotional farewell to our outgoing President Edith Schratzberger-Vecsei, who has served as President for the past 2 years, and previously 4 years on our Executive Committee. She will continue her feminist engagement within the Medical Women’s International Association in Austria. We also said to goodbye to other Executive and Board members and want to thank them for their continued work for a Feminist Europe.
Our new President is Gwendoline Lefebvre from from the Coordination française pour le Lobby Européen des Femmes – CLEF. Read more about her here. We also elected two Vice Presidents: Laura Albu from the Romanian Women’s Lobby and Ana Sofia Fernandes from the Plataforma Portuguesa para os Direitos das Mulheres (PPDM) - Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights, a Treasurer: Annelies Pierrot-Bults from the University Women Europe (UWE) and also Executive members Pirkko Mahlamäki from the European Disability Forum (EDF), Pauline Mukanza from the European YWCA and Anna Zobnina from the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW).
The Board of EWL was elected by the General Assembly on 9 June 2018 for the period 2018 to 2020. You can download the full list of EWL’s Board members and their alternates here.
