Adjusting venues and voices: populist and right-wing parties, the European Parliament and civil society equality organizations 2014–2019

Abstract

The European Parliament (EP) offers channels for policy input through committees, intragroups, and the commissioning of reports and studies. Civil society equality organizations (CSOs) promoting diversity, gender equality and sexual rights are among the actors using such channels. Today they experience severe cutbacks and direct attacks by populist and radical-right parties who increasingly gained electoral support in several member states. The trajectory on the supranational level is less clear. This article examines the question of whether the increase in populist and right-wing parties in the EP changed how supranational CSOs promoting (gender) equality used venues for making their voice heard in EP policy-making in the 2014-2019 legislature. We investigate the challenges to the relationships between the EP, its committees and political groups, and equality CSOs. Analysing documents and interviews with MEPs and CSOs, our findings show that in the changing political environment, CSOs have moved towards more informal channels of participation, thereby avoiding polarization and conflict and maintaining an effective presence on the political stage.

Velvet triangles and more: alliances of supranational EU gender equality actors

“…Elomäki (2015) highlights that reorganising was prompted by the Commission and the Council shifting to a market-oriented gender equality discourse, making it harder to maintain policy issues not framed as an economic case. Despite these harsh winds, the EWL has maintained its presence in the EU arena and has used growing informal access -particularly to the European Parliament -to widen its scope of action (Ahrens and Woodward, 2020). In sum, the European Parliament and its FEMM committee has become an evermore important contact for networking around equality issues, while the potential of the 2019 Commission under von der Leyen to adopt a more nuanced and progressive approach to gender equality remains to be seen.…”

“…Nevertheless, anti-gender mobilisation by conservative, religious and nationalist actors has become increasingly visible as they shower progressive MEPs with threatening emails. As a consequence of this changing political environment and the weak gender equality profile of the Commission under Barroso and Juncker, gender equality actors have moved towards more informal channels of participation, particularly in the European Parliament, thereby avoiding polarisation and conflict (Ahrens and Woodward, 2020).…”

The European Parliament and Gender Equality: An Analysis of Achievements Based on the Concept of Power

“…Some MEPs also threatened to undermine the coalition-building with women's movements by challenging their invitation to public hearings of the FEMM Committee (Crespy and Parks, 2019). Because of this changing political environment, MEPs and civil society organizations promoting gender equality have moved towards more informal channels of participation, thereby avoiding polarization and conflict yet maintaining their power with (Ahrens and Woodward, 2021).…”

“…Woodward, 2021;Crespy and Parks, 2019;Falkner and Plattner, 2018;Jacquot, 2015;Kantola and Lombardo, 2021;Kantola and Miller, 2021;Kristoffersson et al, 2016;Mondo and Close, 2018;Nissen and Rolandsen Agustín, 2018;Sanchez Salgado, 2014;Scaramuzzino and Scaramuzzino, 2015;Warasin et al, 2019. …”