Conference Agenda

The paper examines the case for framing informal caregiving as work within the scope of EU citizenship rights and freedom of movement. It argues that excluding caregiving from recognition as an economic activity reinforces the European Court of Justice’s (CJEU) reliance on ostensibly gender-neutral legal interpretations, which fail to address gender disparities.

Caregiving, both professional and informal, is predominantly carried out by women. The 2022 European Care Strategy and Council Recommendation 2022/C 476/01 estimate the market value of informal caregiving at 2.5% of the EU’s GDP. Nevertheless, caregiving remains excluded from the definition of economic activity under EU law, particularly in cases concerning freedom of movement and citizenship. This exclusion prevents caregivers—primarily women—from benefiting from worker status and the rights it affords. The CJEU has consistently ruled that unpaid caregiving does not meet the "effective and genuine" work standard required for worker status in these contexts.

The paper analyzes how caregiving might fall within the EU’s competences, particularly concerning freedom of movement and citizenship rights. It contrasts caregiving with other borderline cases, such as unpaid odd jobs for housing, deemed economic activity by the CJEU. By examining these precedents, the paper questions the rationale for excluding caregiving and considers its alignment with the CJEU’s market-oriented logic.

Finally, drawing on insights from the feminist judgments project, the paper advocates for incorporating a feminist perspective into judicial reasoning to promote equality and foster a more inclusive legal framework.

In 2024, reproductive rights in Europe faced a roller coaster of progress and setbacks. In March, France became the first European country to enshrine a constitutional right to voluntary termination of pregnancy, moving beyond implicit protections. The momentum continued in April when the European Parliament passed a Resolution proposing the inclusion of abortion rights in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR). The proposed amendment to Article 3 CFR introduces the concept of "bodily autonomy," aiming to harmonize abortion access and strengthen sexual and reproductive rights across the Union. Despite these advancements, significant challenges remain. In the same year, Italy enacted a law allowing pro-life organizations to operate within abortion facilities, a move that critics argue undermines women's autonomy and access to care. Meanwhile, abortion remains illegal in Malta and is heavily restricted in Poland, demonstrating persistent disparities in reproductive rights across Europe. The simultaneous expansion and erosion of reproductive rights requires innovative approaches that address these disparities. This paper examines these dynamics through a legal and theoretical lens, employing Romero’s Queer Legal Theory to challenge hegemonic norms surrounding the framing and expansion of fundamental rights.It reviews the limited abortion-related provisions in EU law and case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Additionally, it explores potential avenues for advancing reproductive rights through member states’ constitutions, the European Convention on Human Rights, case law from the European Court of Human Rights, and the contributions of grassroots movements and NGOs. By analyzing these elements, this study provides insights into the evolution of fundamental EU rights and advances the discourse on reproductive rights as human rights. Ultimately, this underscores the global significance of safeguarding and expanding human rights to include reproductive rights.

Challenging European Integration through family and children’s issues

The great achievement of European integration, whose economic consolidation is undeniable, falters when it comes to social issues such as cross-border family law. The European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on the recognition of parenthood (2022) is the latest attempt to harmonise civil procedures on this topic in the EU. Based on the analysis of the proposal’s procedure, this contribution shows two principal aspects in a complex political game: First, a democratic deficit in the EU decision-making process, consequence of a special legislative procedure, which contrasts with the results of parliamentary debate; and second, the power of children’s rights as a legal and political tool whose strategic mobilisation can achieve agreement between the Commission and the Parliament and advance European integration on sensitive issues despite the heterogeneity of Member States’ views on these matters. The procedure reveals the lack of consensus on controversial issues and the risk of the EU being accused of imposing a worldview on Member States with more conservative positions.

Methods and Data

To address the political battles that takes place at the nexus of EU integration and family law, I draw empirical evidence from three main sources. I ran detailed archival research of official documents of EU institutions (39 texts were examined from 1998 to 2024: eight regulations, five proposals for regulation, five directives, two green papers, fifteen studies, and four resolutions published by the European Commission and European Parliament) on private international law and children’s rights. I performed 14 semi-structured interviews with officials from the European Commission (2), the European Parliament (3), the Council of the EU (1), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, 2), the Council of Europe (CoE, 3), and NGOs (3)¹¹. Interviewees were selected using both purposive sampling (direct contact with key informants responsible for Proposal 2022/0402) and snowball sampling. I conducted a detailed analysis of two debates on this proposal in the European Parliament (13 December 2023) and in the EU Council (14 June 2024). Taken together, these sources provide the underpinning of the political game in which controversial issues such as same-sex marriage, surrogacy, or children's rights are entangled in Europe.

Reference:

Proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood COM(2022) 695 final, Brussels, December 2022.