On 4 March, MEP Soraya Rodríguez participated in an event organised by the European Parliament Office in Spain, entitled ‘Women’s rights in the EU: Achievements and challenges ahead of the 2024 European elections’. This event, which had the participation of several Spanish MEPs from all over the political spectrum, sought to review the achievements made in the field of equality throughout the legislature, as well as to identify and analyse the challenges for the next mandate, which will have a new composition of the Eurochamber after the European elections in June.
Among the speakers with whom MEP Soraya Rodríguez shared the floor were Rosa Estarás (EPP), Lina Gálvez (S&D), Margarita de la Pisa (ERC) and Maria Eugenia Rodríguez Palop (Left), all members of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament.
Among the achievements of this legislature, Soraya Rodríguez mentioned the adoption of the Gender-Based Violence Directive, the Anti-Trafficking Directive or the directives on pay transparency and equality on the boards of large companies, a legislative package that brings the European Union closer to real equality, a goal that must move from aspiration to reality.
“If we were talking about citizens of any other sector, the European Union would had begun years ago to seek common legislation to protect this number of citizens,” said the MEP during her speech.
On the adoption of the Gender-Based Violence Directive, Soraya Rodríguez was satisfied, as the expected composition of the future European Parliament, which would be more conservative according to polls, would have clearly complicated its adoption.
“I am absolutely convinced that if we had not removed it and if we did not vote it in April, the composition of the European Parliament for the next parliamentary term would have made it impossible to have the first directive in our 70 years of fighting sexist violence,” she concluded.
