BRUSSELS, Thursday 8 October 2020 - EPF President Hon. Petra De Sutter, MEP has been appointed Deputy Prime Minister this week in the new government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. In this capacity, she oversees Belgium's public administration and public enterprises.
Unfortunately this mandate implies an end to Honourable De Sutter's long and successful career with EPF: having joined the Executive Committee as a member in 2015 in Berlin and being elected EPF President in Ottowa 2018. She also served as co-chair of the European Parliament group MEPs for SRR.
Honourable De Sutter shared a farewell video message with the EPF Executive Committee and members, in which she said:
"EPF, its members, MPs and APPG secretaries have played a key role in mobilising to highlight problems and fight for solutions. It has been a real honour to be your President for the past years and I want to support you to continue this fight and make clear to everyone that we refuse a lockdown for sexual and reproductive rights. I will strive for this within the federal government as well. This is certainly no goodbye - I hope to see many of you very soon."
The new Belgian government is made up of seven political parties including greens, social-democrats, liberals and christian-democrats. The former chair of the Belgian APPG, Karine Lalieux, has also become a Minister in this government, and APPG member Sarah Schlitz is appointed state-secretary for Gender Equality. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is a She Decides champion and previous minister of DEVCO. This is the first ever gender-equal Belgium government.
In the government's declaration, as of 2021, Belgium commits to, build a trajectory to reach the 0,7% BNP for ODA by 2030, the realisation of the SDGs, and will prioritise (amongst others) qualitative health care, education and social protection in its development cooperation. Sexual and reproductive rights are considered a transversal issue, as is gender, human rights, climate, good governance and the rule of law. In its foreign affairs Belgium commits to a strong multilateral system, and it's leading role in defense of the rights of the Child, gender equality and LGBTQIA+ protection and decriminalisation.
We're thus delighted to see such strong champions for SRHR in the Belgium government and hope that Belgium will continue to be a vocal advocate for SRHR and gender equality in the years ahead.