The Tricky Issues?: Prostitution, Abortion, Same-Sex Families and the EU

Abstract

The EU holds gender equality to be a central goal of the Union. Over the past twenty years or so, the EU’s policy remit has expanded considerably, as ever more issues are being framed in such a way that they can fall within the scope of EU legislation. Yet some issues have persistently been kept off the EU’s policy agenda. These include abortion, prostitution and same-sex families. Although abortion is evidently a gender issue, and prostitution arguably so (98% of clients are men), it is not clear that policymakers perceive either of them as a gender equality issue. In contrast, for many feminists, control over one’s body is a precondition for equality. All of these issues have attracted considerable attention at the member state level, but have not been taken up by the EU. This is not solely for reasons of competence. It has been shown repeatedly that reframing an issue can bring it within the remit of the EU. This panel, therefore, searches for explanations for the persistent absence of prostitution, abortion and same-sex families from the EU policy agenda. It draws on the literature on policy silences, agenda setting, issue framing and morality policy. The key question is how we can best explain the exclusion of certain gender equality issues from the EU policy agenda and what are the broader implications of this.