EU Institutions and Governance

Abstract

This panel examines how gender equality is shaped, negotiated, and constrained within the institutional architecture and governance practices of the European Union. Despite strong rhetorical commitments to equality, EU institutions continue to face structural, political, and procedural barriers that limit transformative policy change. The papers collectively explore how legislation, institutional dynamics, and political actors influence the advancement or obstruction of gender equality initiatives. The panel investigates the causes and consequences of legislative gridlock, including the stalled EU Horizontal Equality Directive, highlighting how a hierarchy of rights and competing policy priorities hinder progress. It further analyzes how member states negotiate equality files in the Council of the EU, showing the interplay between national preferences, political bargaining, and EU-level coordination in shaping directives on pay transparency and violence prevention. The role of radical right populist actors is also foregrounded, revealing how their presence and strategic “unpolitics” tactics disrupt consensus-building and challenge longstanding equality frameworks. Finally, the panel offers insight into the gendered dimensions of leadership and political communication by examining how President Ursula von der Leyen employs gendered rhetoric during her second term.

Title	Details
Radical Right Populists at our Table. Unpolitics in the Council of the EU and the case of Gender+ Equality	View Paper Details
Legislative Gridlock and the Hierarchy of Rights: Explaining the Failure of the EU Horizontal Equality Directive	View Paper Details
How do member states legislate equality files in the Council of the EU? The cases of the pay transparency and anti-violence directives	View Paper Details
The 2024 European Union Directive on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence: An Assessment of Policy Design	View Paper Details
Negotiating Gender Equality: Constraints to Policy Change in the Council of the European Union	View Paper Details