Guidelines Gender Equality Policy: A Strategy for Success in the ...

5B. Guidelines for the negotiations on legislative proposals in the Councilworking groupsThe impact of legislation on women and men can vary in intensity from one act to another.At EU level, an assessment of the impact of a given legislative proposal should already havebeen carried out by the European Commission before the draft is introduced in the Councilworking group. It would be sensible to request or demand this impact assessment from theEuropean Commission. In any case, the gender relevance of the legislation should be discussedat the time the proposal is introduced.It is quite possible for individual proposals to have no gender relevance. This outcome should berecorded by the Chair in suitable form (footnote, note in the minutes of the meeting, etc.).If the envisioned legislative proposal has a different impact on women and men, one object of thesubsequent negotiation rounds of the Council working group will be to scrutinize the proposal todetermine the precise reasons for this potentially different impact on women and men and drawthe necessary conclusions. This should be done within the normal Council working groupframework and comply with the normal format for Council documents.Example 1One outcome of the work could be to address the different impact on women and men in aparagraph of the preamble:… The Council notes that men still have few opportunities to better reconcilefamily and career by availing themselves of their right to parental leave.Employer and employee representatives are called upon to address this issue intheir negotiations.Example 2In the case of Directives, one outcome of the work could be to expressly call for gender-sensitivetransposition into national law.