Policy Formation

The working group on policy formation aims at building dialogue between the specialised equality bodies and the European institutions with a view to contributing to the inclusion of an effective equality focus in EU policies and programmes.

The working group has sought to provide an input to support the development of equality policies at European Union level. Examples of this work are the opinions on Equality Mainstreaming, on the annual high level equality summit, on Securing Lasting Legacy from the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All and on Equality Policy Initiatives proposed on the sexual orientation, religion, age, disability and gender grounds.

The working group’s methodology has, as its main purpose, as first to identify and develop channels of communication with the European Commission and the European Parliament. Consequently it intends to recognize policy areas to be a focus for the development of an upcoming dialogue.

The core work of the working group is the preparation of opinions. These opinions would set out the policy area and analyse its current equality focus across all the grounds covered by EU Equality Directives. The topic for an opinion is agreed upon by the Board, sometimes in consultation with the European Commission. A call is then issued to working group members to provide their ideas on the topic and how the topic should be addressed in the opinion. These ideas are then used to prepare a draft opinion which is circulated for comment to working group members. A final draft of the opinion is then circulated to the Board for comment and clearance

The opinion is then issued to the relevant policy makers and is usually published for wider circulation. Opinions are not binding on the individual member organisations of EQUINET and do not preclude these organisations making their own submission at European level