Council of European Municipalities and Regions A Europe for our municipalities and regions

1950 Where we come from

Who we are today European municipalities and regions 41 countries 57 associations European section of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)

What we do: CEMR Secretariat Influencing EU legislationProviding an exchange forum Staff Policy areas Financing of our activities Around 30 persons including interns working at the office in Brussels Democracy and Citizenship, Twinning, International cooperation, Environment, Energy, Employment and Social Affairs, Cohesion Policy, Equality etc. Member fees from associations, European funds, other funding*

CEMR and Gender Equaliy ”Walk our talk” Policy Committee - quota (2013) 40 % under-represented sex President: Annemarie Jorritsma - Mayor of Almere (Netherlands) and President of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, VNG Gender balance in panels when organizing conferences ”Mainstream” gender in all our Policy work

The European Charter for Equality Document that local and regional authorities are invited to sign to make a public commitment for equality Elaborated by CEMR in collaboration with its member associations Launched by CEMR in 2006 with support by the European Commission More than 1450 signatories in 32 countries in Europe Translated into 28 languages

The Charter for Equality Document presenting principal values but also a practical tool Composed of 30 articles representing different areas of competences of local and regional authorities The 30 articles describes concrete ways on how municipalities and regions can work with gender equality in different areas For a proper implementation of the Charter signatories are encouraged to elaborate an Action plan for equality within a time period of 2 years after the signature of the Charter

The Observatory of the European Charter Established by CEMR in 2012 Financially supported for a 3 year period by the former Swedish government through the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions – SALAR Monitors the implementation of the European Charter for Equality Provides support to signatories and a platform of exchange Collects examples of good practices and Action plans (currently more than 80 examples of action plans collected from signatories)

Working structures Standing Committee for Equality Composed of elected representatives nominated by member associations. Chair: Ewa Samuelsson, Former Deputy Mayor City of Stockholm Network of national coordinators Composed of staff working at the national associations of CEMR Ensures the link between the Secretariat of the Observatory and signatories in each country National coordinator in Hungary: Veronika Krausz

Examples of good practices Punctual actions Beldur Barik- No fear! (EUDEL – Basque country) A campaign to raise awareness on gender based violence, especially among young people. Support women's employment (Tarsus municipality – Turkey) Training for women to facilitate job searching Employment of women bus drivers to encourage gender diversity in municipal professions

Examples of good practies Mainstreaming City of Vienna in Austria – has worked on Gender Mainstreaming since 2000, focusing on making this a cross-cutting strategy for the whole municipality SALAR – video on gender mainstreaming - linklink

Atlas of signatories

Signatories in Hungary

Pilot project – to develop indicators 2 year project (started in January 2014) financed by the European Commission DG Justice To deliver the project CEMR collaborates with the consultancy agency ICF and the Basque University in Spain CEMR indicators developed in 2009 (in collaboration with member associations) Objectives: To develop a set of scientific indicators that will allow monitoring and measuring the implementation of the European Charter for Equality To monitor the implementation of the Charter by populating the indicators on the signatories To create a toolkit that will support signatories when using the indicators (instrument for self-assessement) Organizing a final conference to present the results of the project (date to be confirmed – October 2015)

Indicators and monitoring phase Have developed a final list of 76 indicators corresponding to the different articles of the Charter 3 types of indicators: Structural (e.g. formal commitment) Process (e.g. actions implemented) Outcome (e.g. share of women and men) December 2014 – January 2015: Development of an online monitoring tool avaliable in 21 languages Janvier – Mars 2015: Monitoring phase – signatories are invited to use the newly developed indicators by answering questions

Upcoming activities Elaboration of a report on the state of play of the implementation of the European Charter for Equality in the EU based on the results of the monitoring – for the European Commission Development of a « toolkit » that will help the signatories to use the indicators Organisation of a final conference – to be held in Brussels in October 2015 –date is not yet decided

Contact: Johanna Törnström – Policy Officer - Equality CEMR Office Brussels 1 Square de Meeûs 1000 Brussels