The pandemic has further exacerbated gender inequalities, with many women becoming full-time home carers and educators, while providing the majority of essential services outside the home.

At the same time, incidents of domestic violence rose dramatically during the lockdowns. The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) highlights in its Gender Equality Index 2022 that the EU's 2022 score is still far behind acceptable figures.

Progressive locally and regionally elected politicians can and do make a difference when it comes to designing and implementing effective gender equality measures, thus contributing to a feminist vision of the European Union that safeguards achievements so far and pushes for faster progress in gender equality. They have also a key role to play in the fight against gender-based violence as many of their decisions have a direct impact on the different genders.

The PES Group in the European Committee of the Regions, together with PES Group member Ximo Puig I Ferrer, President of Valencia Region, organised the public event "Gender inequalities and violence – Regional and local solutions", which took place in Valencia, Spain, on Friday 3 March 2023 from 16:00 to 20:30.

The event brought together PES Group members, European Commissioners, members of the European Parliament, young progressive local and regional politicians, activists, experts and citizens to discuss good practices and reflect upon innovative solutions on the ground around two round table discussions. The focus was on women's economic and social empowerment and on the elimination of gender-based violence.

THE DRAFT PROGRAMME IS BELOW

The event is organised with the support of PSOE Group of the city of Valencia and sees the involvement of five progressive partners: the Young European Socialists (YES), the Party of European Socialists (PES), PES Women, Foundation for Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the S&D Group in the European Parliament.

Study visits

On Friday 3 March, the Socialists Group in the Valencia Regional Parliament and the PSOE Valencia invited the members of the European Committee of the Regions and PES Women to visit is one of the most innovative and advanced facility in Spain, and is currently being developed by the regional government of Valencia in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior. It offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary service of assistance to victims of gender-based violence and facilitates the process of reporting criminal acts. It provides personalised attention to victims by specialised personnel, accompanying them throughout the reporting process, thus providing the best conditions for an effective outcome and allow a centralization of the complaints in an office attended by specialised agents and with the support of a team of psychologists and social workers. In this way, it is intended to address the problem in a comprehensive way, paying attention to safety, psychological and social factors.

#ProgressivesSpeakUp School 2023

Together with our partners, we had the opportunity to host, in the afternoon of 2 March and in the morning of 3 March, the fourth edition of the #ProgressivesSpeakUp: School of young local and regional politicians.

PES Women Statutory Meeting

In the margins of the PES Group event, PES Women met on Thursday 2 March to hold a Statutory Meeting.