“Over the past two years, Italy has made a number of reforms with a view to enhancing women’s political participation and ensuring a better gender balance in the institutions,” today said Maria Elena Boschi, Minister of Constitutional Reforms and Relations with the Parliament of Italy, at the opening of a plenary debate on women‘s political representation.

She added that this constitutional reform provides for measures applicable to political parties, but also in the framework of the electoral legislation, in order to increase the presence of women in the European Parliament, the Italian Parliament and at the level of municipal councils.

“Better representation of women will ensure that our governments and our parliaments make more balanced decisions, with greater attention paid to issues such as the work-life balance or how we change welfare systems to take greater account of women’s needs,” she stressed. “This will have a knock-effect on our policies in the years to come,” concluded the Minister.

• Video of the speech