On 22 March 2005, the European social partners – BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME, CEEP and ETUC, including representatives of the EUROCADRES/CEC Liaison Committee – signed a Framework of actions on gender equality (210Kb PDF). This joint text is the culmination of work on gender equality, carried out within the framework of the social partners’ three-year work programme over the period 2003–2005.

The framework agreement highlights four priorities on which the European interprofessional social partner organisations want their respective national social partners to focus over the coming five years. These include:

 addressing gender roles;
 promoting women in decision-making;
 supporting work-life balance; and
 tackling the gender pay gap.

These priorities are to be interpreted as interconnected and of equal importance. Any action taken at national, sectoral and/or company level will be most effective if these priorities are tackled in an ‘integrated approach’.

Impact assessment

Every year, the four European social partner organisations monitor the impact of the Framework of actions on gender equality. After four annual reports, the European social partners will assess the impact of this instrument on both companies and workers.

Framework of actions and implementation reports

Click below to read the full text of the Framework of actions on gender equality and its implementation reports. For other language versions (Croation, Estonian, Latvian and Swedish), please see the ETUC Resource Centre.