Gender budgeting has gained popularity and is implemented as a tool for gender equality policy and public financial management globally (Khan and Burn 2017; O’Hagan and Klatzer 2018; Elson 2021). However, the European Union (EU) has lagged behind in systematically implementing gender budgeting, even though many EU member states adopted it in the early 2010s (Klatzer and O’Hagan 2018; EIGE 2018). In recent years, gender budgeting has finally entered the vocabulary of EU institutions, with new initiatives launched to integrate gender perspectives into the EU’s budget process.
This presentation examines the institutionalisation of gender budgeting in the EU budget under Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission presidency and within the EU’s 2021–2027 long-term budget. Gender budgeting offers a new perspective for studying gender equality changes in a critical EU policy area that has received little attention from gender scholars. It also provides insights into the broader challenges of EU budget reform. The presentation addresses the following key questions:
1) How did gender budgeting emerge on the EU agenda, and what have been the outcomes?
2) What are the institutional and political possibilities and constraints for institutionalising gender budgeting in the EU budget?
Based on interviews with key actors and extensive document analysis, the study applies a qualitative process-tracing approach, drawing on theories of policy change and focusing on policy entrepreneurs and new institutionalism. Rather than analysing the content of the EU budget from a gender perspective, the focus is on how gender budgeting has progressed from agenda-setting to implementation.