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On 13 November 2025, the European Parliament adopted its Resolution on the forthcoming EU Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030. The document sets out the Parliament’s expectations for the next five-year framework on women’s rights. While the Resolution identifies several critical issues — including violence against women, sexual exploitation, gaps in women’s healthcare, access to abortion, discrimination in employment and the exploitation inherent in surrogacy — it also contains significant contradictions and legal inconsistencies.
In key areas, it relies on activist-driven frameworks that are not grounded in EU law, merges women with the broad “LGBTIQ+” category and conflates women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights with gender-identity medical interventions. While the Resolution rightly condemns surrogacy as reproductive exploitation, it simultaneously draws on documents that promote or normalise the practice. This selective and uncritical use of sources suggests that many MEPs did not fully examine the materials they endorsed, resulting in a text that is internally inconsistent and conceptually confused.
Source: Athena Brief: The European Parliament Resolution on the EU Gender Equality Strategy – Athena Forum