Common Position (EC) No 21/2004 of 19 February 2004 adopted by the Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, with a view to adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on promoting gender equality in development cooperation
Date: 2004-02-19
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: cooperation policy, development aid, gender equality, social policy

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COMMON POSITION (EC) No 21/2004

adopted by the Council on 19 February 2004

with a view to adopting Regulation (EC) No . . ./2004 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of . . . on promoting gender equality in development cooperation

(2004/C 95 E/02)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 179 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty (2),

Whereas:

(1) The United Nations Millennium Development Goals call
for gender equality and empowerment of women, setting
clear targets in the field of education that have to be
achieved no later than 2015.

(2) Two thirds of children out of school are girls. Enrolment
lower than those for boys and

rates for girls are still
drop-out rates for girls are higher.

(3) Article 3(2) of the Treaty stipulates that in all the activities
referred to therein,
including a policy in the sphere of
development cooperation, the Community is to aim to
eliminate inequalities, and to promote equality, between
men and women.

(4) A disproportionate majority of

the world's poor are
women. Therefore the promotion of gender equality is
important for the overarching goal of poverty reduction
by 2015.

(5) Gender equality of women and men of all ages

is
recognised as being important to effective and efficient
work against poverty. To achieve the goal of gender
equality through the gender mainstreaming strategy,
there is a need to combine it with specific measures in
favour of women of all ages.

(6) Women's contribution to development is achieved in the
face of numerous obstacles, limiting the outcome of their

(1) OJ C . . .
(2) Opinion of the European Parliament of 18 December 2003 (not yet
published in the Official
Journal), Council common position of
19 February 2003 and position of the European Parliament of
. . . (not yet published in the Official Journal).

as

a whole. The

work and reducing the benefits for themselves and to
society
importance of women's
economic, social, and environmental roles across the life
course, in developing countries has led to increasing inter-
national recognition that their full participation without
and
discrimination is
effective development.

indispensable

sustainable

for

(7) The Community and its Member States were signatories to
the Declaration and Platform for Action of
the 1995
Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, which
stressed the need for action against worldwide obstacles
to gender equality and established gender mainstreaming
as a strategy to promote gender equality.

(8) The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all
forms of Discrimination against Women considers
discrimination against women as an obstacle to devel-
opment, and the parties to the Convention agree to
eliminate this discrimination using all appropriate means.

(9) Council Regulation (EC) No 2836/98 of 22 December
1998 on integrating of gender issues in development
cooperation (3) aims to support
the mainstreaming of
gender analysis in all area of development cooperation
policies and to support and facilitate the inclusions of
actions addressing major gender disparities.
It ensures
that gender equality is promoted in national plans
the Beijing
designed to implement major elements of
Platform for Action. That Regulation expired
on
31 December 2003.

(10) The declaration by the Council and the Commission on
the European Community's development policy, adopted
on 10 November 2000, states that gender equality is a
cross-cutting issue.

(11) The Commission's communication to the Council and the
European Parliament of 21 June 2001 on the programme
of action on the mainstreaming of gender equality in
Community Development Cooperation sets the implemen-
tation
That
programme of action was endorsed by the Council in its
conclusions of 8 November 2001.

that mainstreaming.

framework

for

(3) OJ L 354, 30.12.1998, p. 5. Regulation as amended by Regulation
(EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council
(OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1).

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(12) The European Parliament stressed in its Resolution of
25 April 2002 (1) on that programme of action its
commitment to gender mainstreaming as the approach
to furthering the goal of gender equality and improving
the position of women in developing countries.

The Community support shall be aimed at comple-
and capacities of
the assistance provided

2.
menting and reinforcing the policies
developing countries as well as
through other instruments of development cooperation.

(13) This Regulation lays down, for the entire duration of the
programme, a financial framework constituting the prime
reference, within the meaning of point 33 of the Inter-
institutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the
the Council and the Commission
European Parliament,
on budgetary
the
budgetary procedure (2),
the budgetary authority
during the annual budgetary procedure.
In general,
Community development-related funding should also
contribute towards gender equality as a cross-cutting issue.

improvement of

discipline

and

for

(14) The measures necessary for the implementation of this
Regulation should be
adopted in accordance with
Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying
down the procedures for the exercise of implementing
powers conferred on the Commission (3).

(15) Since the objective of the proposed action, namely to
promote gender equality in development cooperation,
cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States,
and can therefore, by reason of the scale and effects of
that action, be better achieved at Community level, the
Community may adopt measures in accordance with the
principle of subsidiarity set out in Article 5 of the Treaty.
In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set
out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond
what is necessary in order to achieve that objective,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

C h a p t e r I

SCOPE

Article 1

1.
The purpose of this Regulation is to implement measures
to promote gender equality in Community development coop-
eration policies, strategies and interventions.

To this end, the Community shall provide financial assistance
and appropriate expertise aimed at promoting gender equality
into all its development cooperation policies and interventions
in developing countries.

(1) OJ C 131 E, 5.6.2003, p. 153.
(2) OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1. Agreement as amended by Decision
2003/429/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L
147, 14.6.2003, p. 25).
(3) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

Article 2

For the purposes of this Regulation:

(a)

‘gender mainstreaming’ concerns planning, (re)organisation,
improvement, and evaluation of policy processes, so that a
gender equality perspective is incorporated in all devel-
opment policies, strategies and interventions, at all levels
and at all stages by the actors normally involved therein;

(b) specific measures to prevent or compensate for disad-
vantages linked to sex may be maintained or introduced
with a view to ensuring equality in practice between men
and women; such measures should,
in the first instance,
improving the situation of women in the field
aim at
covered by this Regulation.

Article 3

The objectives to be pursued by this Regulation, in accordance
with the goal of promoting gender equality and empower
women as specified by the United Nations Millennium Devel-
opment Goals, the United Nations Convention on the Elimi-
nation of all
the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the
Fourth World Conference on Women, the outcome of the
Special Session of
the General Assembly ‘Women 2000:
gender equality, development and peace for the 21st century’,
are the following:

forms of Discrimination against Women,

(a) to support gender mainstreaming in all areas of devel-
opment cooperation, combined with specific measures in
favour of women of all ages, with the goal of promoting
gender equality as an important contribution to poverty
reduction;

(b) to support endogenous public and private capacities in
developing countries which can take the responsibility
and initiative for promoting gender equality.

Article 4

Activities

1.
eligible for financing include, in particular:

in the field of promoting gender equality

resources and services

(a) supporting specific measures related to access to, and
in
monitoring of,
particular,
in the areas of education and training, health,
economic and social activities, employment and infra-
structure, and to participation in political decision-making
processes;

for women,

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(b) promoting the

collection, dissemination, analysis and
improvement of statistics disaggregated by sex and age,
development
of methodologies,
dissemination
guidelines, ex ante and ex post gender impact assessments,
thematic studies, qualitative and quantitative indicators, and
other operational instruments;

and

(c) supporting awareness-raising and advocacy work and the
establishment of stakeholders' networks in the field of
gender equality;

(d) supporting activities aiming at strengthening institutional
and operational capacities of key stakeholders in partner
the
countries
provision of gender
training and technical
assistance.

in the development process,

specialists,

such as

The instruments to be financed in the course of

2.
activities referred to in paragraph 1 may take the form of:

the

(a) methodological and organisational studies on gender main-

streaming relevant to all age groups;

(b) technical assistance including gender impact assessment,
information society or other

training,

the

education,
services;

(c) supplies, audits, evaluation and monitoring missions.

3.

Community financing may cover:

(a)

investment projects, with the exception of the purchase of
real estate;

(b) operating expenditure of a beneficiary body including
that
foreseen for administrative

recurring
should not exceed the cost
expenditure.

and maintenance

administrative

costs

Operating grants shall be awarded on a gradually decreasing
basis.

Article 5

In the selection and implementation of activities referred to in
Article 4(1), particular attention shall be paid to:

(a) the potential of interventions and programmes to act as a
catalyst and a multiplier in order to support the strategy of
gender mainstreaming on a large scale in Community inter-
ventions;

(b) strengthening strategic partnerships and initiating trans-
national
in particular,
cooperation which reinforces,
regional cooperation in the area of gender equality;

(c) the pursuit of cost-effectiveness and sustainable impact in

the design and planning of interventions;

and poverty diseases,

(e) efforts made to promote synergies with policies and
programmes targeting reproductive and sexual health and
rights
in particular HIV/AIDS
programmes, measures
to combat violence, girl-child
issues, the education and training of women of all ages,
ageing people,
the environment, human rights, conflict
prevention, democratisation and the participation of
women in the political, economic and social decision-
making process;

(f) gender mainstreaming

in the
Community development policy;

six priority

areas of

(g) the importance of paying special attention to the education
of girls, and to the fact that the situation of unequal oppor-
tunities for girls could start to be redressed by recruiting
and training local female teachers.

C h a p t e r I I

IMPLEMENTATION OF AID

Article 6

Financial support pursuant to this Regulation shall take

1.
the form of grants or contracts.

2.
A grant may finance the entire costs of an action only if
it is shown that this is essential for it to be carried out, with
the exception of actions resulting from the implementation of
financing agreements with third countries or actions managed
by international organisations.
In other cases, a financial
contribution from the beneficiaries defined in Article 7 shall
the contribution
be sought.
the
requested,
partners concerned and the nature of the operation in question.

In specifying the amount of
regard shall be given to the capacity of

3.
Contracts with beneficiaries may cover the financing of
their operating expenditure, in accordance with Article 4(3)(b).

The provision of

financial assistance pursuant

to this
4.
Regulation may entail cofinancing with other donors,
in
particular with Member States, the United Nations, and inter-
national or regional development banks or financial
insti-
tutions.

Article 7

The partners eligible for financial assistance pursuant to

1.
this Regulation include:

(a) administrative authorities and agencies at national, regional

and local government levels;

(b) local communities, NGOs, particularly those operating in
equality, women's organisations,
trade unions, and other

the
community-based organisations,
not-for-profit natural and legal persons;

field of gender

(d) the clear definition and monitoring of objectives and

indicators;

(c)

the local private sector;

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(d) regional organisations;

Commission may take all necessary coordination measures,
including in particular:

(e)

international organisations, such as the United Nations and
its agencies, funds and programmes, as well as development
banks, financial institutions, global initiatives, international
public/private partnerships;

(f)

research
universities.

and

development

studies

institutes

and

2. Without prejudice
to paragraph 1(e), Community
financial assistance in the form of grants shall be available to
partners whose head office is located in a Member State or in a
third country that is a beneficiary or potential beneficiary of
Community assistance under this Regulation, provided that this
office is the actual centre which directs business operations. In
exceptional cases, this office may be located in another third
country. Priority will be given to endogenous structures that
can play a role in developing local capacities with respect to
gender.

Article 8

1. Where operations are the subject of financing agreements
between the Community and the recipient country, such
agreements shall stipulate that the payment of taxes, duties
or any other charges is not to be covered by the Community.

2.
All financing agreements, grant agreements or contracts
concluded pursuant to this Regulation shall provide for the
Commission and the Court of Auditors to conduct on-the-spot
checks in accordance with the usual procedures laid down by
the Commission under the rules in force, in particular those of
the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the
European Communities (1).

The necessary measures shall be taken to emphasise the
to this

3.
Community character of the aid provided pursuant
Regulation.

Article 9

1.
Participation in invitations to tender and the award of
procurement contracts shall be open on equal terms to all
natural and legal persons of the Member States, assimilated
countries, and in all developing countries. It shall be open to
other third countries on the condition of reciprocity. It may be
extended, under exceptional and duly justified circumstances,
to other third countries.

Supplies shall originate in the Member States, the bene-
2.
ficiary country or other developing countries.
In the cases
mentioned in paragraph 1, supplies may originate in other
third countries.

Article 10

1.
In order to secure the objectives of consistency and
complementarity referred to in the Treaty and to ensure
maximum effectiveness of these operations as a whole, the

(1) Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (OJ L 248,

16.9.2002, p. 1).

(a) the establishment of a system for the systematic exchange
and analysis of information on the operations financed and
those which the Community and the Member States
propose to finance;

(b) the on-the-spot coordination of

the implementation of
operations through regular meetings and exchanges of
information between the representatives of the Commission
and the Member States in the recipient country, local auth-
orities and other decentralised bodies.

2.
The Commission should raise the question of gender as a
standing item on the agenda during meetings between
and
representatives of
partner countries in order to increase awareness of gender
issues in emerging areas of development cooperation.

the Commission, Member States

The Commission shall draw on the experiences of
3.
Members States, other donors and partner countries in the
field of gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment.

4.
The Commission, together with the Member States, may
take any initiative necessary for ensuring proper coordination
with the other donors concerned, in particular those forming
part of the United Nations system.

C h a p t e r I I I

FINANCIAL PROVISIONS AND RELEVANT DECISION-MAKING
PROCEDURES

Article 11

The financial framework for the implementation of this
1.
Regulation for the period 2004 to 2006 is hereby set at EUR 9
million.

The annual appropriations shall be authorised by the
financial

authority within the

limits of

the

2.
budgetary
perspectives.

Article 12

responsible

The Commission shall be

1.
for drafting
strategic programming guidelines, defining the Community's
cooperation in terms of measurable objectives, priorities,
deadlines
assumptions and
expected outcomes. Programming shall be multiannual and
indicative.

areas of action,

specific

for

2.
An annual exchange of views shall take place once a year
on the basis of a presentation by the representative of the
Commission of the general guidelines for the operations to
be carried out,
in the framework of a joint meeting of the
Committees referred to in Article 14(1).

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Article 13

1.
The Commission shall be responsible for appraising,
deciding on and administering operations covered by this
Regulation according to the budgetary and other procedures
in force, and in particular those laid down in the Financial
Regulation.

The work programme shall be adopted under

2.
procedure referred to in Article 14(2).

the

Article 14

The Commission shall be assisted by the geographically

1.
competent Committee for development.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 4 and
7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the
provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 4(3), of Decision 1999/468/EC
shall be set at 45 days.

3.

The Committee shall adopt its Rules of Procedure.

European Parliament and to the Council, information on the
operations
that year and the
Commission's conclusions on the implementation of this Regu-
lation over the previous budget year.

financed in the course of

The summary shall in particular provide information about the
strengths, weaknesses and outcomes of operations, those with
whom contracts have been concluded as well as the results of
any independent evaluations of specific operations.

this Regulation,

One year before the expiry of

the
2.
Commission shall submit an independent appraisal report on
its implementation to the European Parliament and the Council
with a view to establishing whether its objectives have been
achieved and providing guidelines for improving the effec-
tiveness of future operations. On the basis of this appraisal
report the Commission may make proposals for the future of
this Regulation and, if necessary, proposals for its amendment.

C h a p t e r I V

REPORTS

Article 15

Article 16

This Regulation shall enter
into force on the 20th day
following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Union.

1.
After each budget year, the Commission shall submit in
its annual report on Community development policy to the

It shall apply until 31 December 2006.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirely and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at . . .

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. On 31 July 2003, the Commission submitted to the Council and to the European Parliament a
proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on promoting gender
equality in development cooperation (1). This proposal is based on Article 179 of the EC Treaty,
which foresees the codecision procedure set out in Article 251 of the EC Treaty.

2. On 18 December 2003, the European Parliament delivered its opinion at first reading and adopted

21 amendments to the Commission's proposal (2).

3. On 26 January 2004, the Council reached a political agreement on a common position that takes
on board 20 of the 21 EP amendments. On 19 February 2004, the Council adopted formally this
common position.

II. OBJECTIVE

The general purpose of
this Regulation is to implement measures to promote gender equality in
Community development cooperation policies, strategies and interventions. In particular, this Regu-
lation proposes to clarify the political goal of the Community gender policy within the field of
development cooperation. A stronger orientation will make the process clearer and more visible and
will make it easier to activate the necessary change to promote gender equality in development
cooperation. This approach is necessary in order to effectively use the strategy of gender mainstreaming
in the context of poverty reduction,
in line with the Commission communication on the 2001
Programme of Action for the mainstreaming of gender equality in Community development coop-
eration (3).

The particular objectives of this Regulation, in accordance with the goal of promoting gender equality and
empower women as specified by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, are:

(a) to support the mainstreaming of gender in all areas of development cooperation, combined with
specific measures in favour of women, with the goal to promote gender equality as an important
contribution to poverty reduction;

(b) to support endogenous public and private capacities in developing countries which can take the

responsibility and initiative for promoting gender equality.

Operations pursuant to this Regulation form part of the Community's overall gender and poverty policies
within development cooperation. In this context, coordination, coherence and complementarity with
other aid instruments available to the Community and with the policies at national, regional and
international level remain essential.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

1. Background

the
— both the European Parliament and the Council welcomed the general approach of
Commission's proposal and agreed on the convenience to try to reach a first
reading
agreement in order to have the Regulation adopted as soon as possible, since it was intended
to replace Council Regulation (EC) No 2836/98 on the integration of gender issues in devel-
opment cooperation (4), which expired on 31 December 2003,

(1) Doc. 11923/03 DEVGEN 110 SOC 318 CODEC 1083 — COM(2003) 465 final.
(2) Doc. 16168/03 CODEC 1838 DEVGEN 166 SOC 530.
(3) Doc. 10576/01 — COM(2001) 295 final.
(4) OJ L 354, 30.12.1998, p. 5.

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— in accordance with the provisions of the joint declaration (1) on practical arrangements for the
codecision procedure, a number of informal contacts were made between the Council, the
Parliament and the Commission in order to reach an agreement at first reading,

— in this context, all modifications that the Council wished to introduce to the Commission
proposal, which were also acceptable to the Commission and to the European Parliament,
were turned into 20 EP compromise amendments. The common position does not amend
otherwise the Commission's proposal,

— The Commission has therefore accepted the common position politically agreed by the Council

on 26 January 2004.

2. European Parliament amendments

— The European Parliament adopted 21 amendments put forward by the Committee on devel-
opment and cooperation. As indicated above, 20 of them had been agreed during the informal
contacts with the Commission and the Council and have been integrally incorporated into the
common position,

— The only amendment that was not incorporated into the common position is amendment 21,
i.e. the proposed EUR 2 million increase to the budget which would set a financial framework
of EUR 11 million instead of EUR 9 million. The Council unanimously rejected this amendment
and sticked to the budget of EUR 9 million as proposed by the Commission, which also rejected
amendment 21. The reasons for maintaining a financial framework of EUR 9 million are the
following:

1. The figure of EUR 9 million was proposed by the Commission on the basis of a realistic
forecast of what can reasonably be spent in the period 2004 to 2006 (i.e. EUR 3 million per
year) and in the light of the evaluation of implementation of Regulation (EC) No 2836/98.

2. The proposed increase of EUR 2 million is not justified because it would not allow gender
mainstreaming — something for which a much larger figure would be required. The objective
of the gender budget line, as stated in the Commission's legislative financial statement, is to
play a ‘catalytic role, pump-priming pilot initiatives and developing and disseminating good
practice’.

3. As the Commission has firmly stated on several occasions, it is not possible to draw the extra
EUR 2 million from budget line B7-6220, where the Commission is even facing serious
difficulties to meet its actual financial commitments.

3. Main innovations introduced by the European Parliament and the Council through the

compromise amendments.

The compromise amendments agreed by the three institutions improve, enhance and clarify the
Commission's proposal by:

— enhancing the poverty-reduction focus and the gender mainstreaming dimension,

— streamlining gender equality as a cross-cutting issue,

— emphasising the importance of coordination between the different stakeholders and the role of

non-state actors,

— underlining the importance of women empowerment,

— introducing clearer criteria for financial eligibility, with special attention to women education

and training.

(1) Joint Declaration on practical arrangements for the new codecision procedure (Article 251 of the Treaty establishing

the European Community) (OJ C 148, 28.5.1999, p. 1).

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IV. CONCLUSION

The Council considers that its common position takes account of the opinion of the European
Parliament in first reading to a very large extent. The Council's common position has taken on
board all agreed amendments between the three institutions. It represents a considerable improvement
to the Commission's proposal and should therefore be acceptable to the European Parliament. The
Council considers that it is essential that the proposed Regulation be adopted and implemented as soon
as possible in order to allow continuity in financing of projects with a view to promote gender equality
in developing countries.