The Working Group on Gender Equality, Anti-Discrimination and Family Policy is responsible for the legislation on equal treatment between men and women contained in Annex XVIII of the EEA Agreement and falls under Subcommittee IV.

The Working Group is currently discussing Directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation, with a view to incorporating this into the EEA Agreement, as well as possible EEA EFTA participation in the European Gender Equality Institute. The European Institute for Gender Equality was established by Regulation No. 1922 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006. The tasks of the Institute are to gather and analyse information regarding gender equality, to raise EU citizens' awareness of gender equality and to develop methodological tools in support to gender mainstreaming.

In addition, the Working Group is looking into all developments on the EU side with regard to gender equality and family policy. The Working Group is currently monitoring EEA EFTA participation in two EU programmes: the gender equality strand of the PROGRESS Programme (2007-2013) and of the Daphne Programme, which is the EU programme created to prevent violence against children, young people and women (2007-2013).

See also:

European Commission - Gender Equality

European Commission - PROGRESS

European Commission - Freedom, Security and Justice