On the 19- th of June, 2006 in the National Palace of Culture’s restaurant “Forum” was held a meeting of women members of the Parliaments in Serbia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey and   representatives of Bulgarian women’s NGOs as a side event of the Second World Conference of Women Parliamentarians in Sofia. The theme of the meeting, organized by the National Democratic Institute in Bulgaria, was “National legislation in women’s support”. Members of the Romanian, Serbian and Slovenian Parliaments presented brief overviews of the enacted updated legislation on gender equality in their own countries and underlined the need for special legislation regulating national gender equality institutional mechanism and promoting representation of women in politics and in institutions.

The Romanian representative Monica - Mihaela Stirbu from the National Liberal Party (NLP) explained that the representation of women in the Romanian Parliament is only 12 %. NLP has 43 % of women but only 5 women members of the Parliament. Currently a draft law on the elections which envisages political parties to introduce in their Statutes a requirement for female and male representatives in first three places in the electoral lists is under discussions in the Parliament.   

The Serbian representative Mrs. Trifunivich stated that after 6 years of work for improving gender equality legislation in Serbia there are some substantial achievements. Amendments in the Family and the Penal Code concerning domestic violence have been made according and with cooperation with NGOs. Amendments in legislation on elections providing for 30 % representation of women and men in electoral lists of political parties for national and local elections have been adopted. However there is still much work to be done. Presently, a campaign for a minimum of 30 % representation of women in the institutions and in legislative power is undergoing. Draft Law on Equal Opportunities has been submitted to the Parliament but due to procedural obstacles it is not yet discussed. The law is totally new for the West Balkans’ legislative framework, declared the Serbian MP. It introduces new legal definitions, new gender equality institutional mechanism and affirmative measures for eliminating gender disbalance. That is why there is so strong opposition against the adoption of the law.  

12 of the 90 MPs in the Slovenian Parliament are women. Following to the EU integration harmonization process, the Antidiscrimination Law and the Law on Equal Opportunities were adopted and enforced in 2002. Gender equality policy is implemented by the Governmental Office for Equal Opportunities. Slovenia is one of the candidate countries for hosting the headquarters of the newly established European Institute for Gender Equality, financed by the EU Commission.