Responsibilities
Equality
Hadja Lahbib is the Commissioner for Equality. In this role, she is responsible for promoting equality and inclusion and upholding the rights of minorities with the aim of creating a fairer society and social model for everyone.
To this end, she is in charge of:
- developing a Roadmap for Women’s Rights for International Women’s Day 2025, setting out the key gender equality policy principles for the years ahead. This, in turn, will frame the work for a new Gender Equality Strategy.
- leading the work on sexual and reproductive health issues
- proposing a renewed LGBTIQ Equality Strategy for post-2025, which will focus on the continued and persisting hate-motivated harassment and violence, including online, and banning the practice of conversion therapy.
- presenting a new Anti-Racism Strategy
- spearheading the implementation of the EU Strategic Framework for Roma equality, inclusion and participation, as well as the full implementation of the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, respectively
Read more about equality and inclusion in the EU.
Preparedness and crisis management
Hadja Lahbib is also the Commissioner in charge of preparedness and crisis management. She is working towards ensuring a more robust and proactive approach to European crisis management and civil preparedness, both within our borders and on the global stage.
To achieve this, she is tasked with:
- developing and implementing an EU Preparedness Union Strategy which will help the Union to better anticipate, prevent and prepare for crises inside and outside Europe
- fostering a culture of preparedness, developing and carrying out a regular EU comprehensive preparedness exercise and for assessing the need for a future EU Preparedness Law
- working towards a European Civil Defence Mechanism that builds on the Union Civil Protection Mechanism
- developing a new strategy to support medical countermeasures against public health threats and for putting forward a wider EU stockpiling strategy that supports this
- overseeing the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority
- leading on strengthening the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (the EU’s crisis coordination hub) and reinforcing rescEU and the EU’s humanitarian emergency response tools
- strengthening the international cooperation dimension of civil protection and disaster risk management and boosting efforts on humanitarian diplomacy on the global stage
- boosting efforts on humanitarian diplomacy to promote the respect of the international humanitarian law and principles
- working on an integrated approach to fragility to bring together humanitarian, development, peace and other policies to work together to better link urgent relief and long-term solutions
Read more about crisis management and health emergency preparedness and response.
Calendar
Transparency
Meetings and missions
As part of the Commission's commitment to transparency, Commissioners and their Cabinet members publish information on and minutes of all meetings they hold with interest representatives. Every two months, they also publish an overview of mission expenses.
- Meetings with Commissioner Lahbib
- Meetings with Commissioner Lahbib's Cabinet members
- Missions of Commissioner Hadja Lahbib
European Parliament hearings
Read Commissioner Lahbib's answers to the European Parliament questionnaire.
Declaration of interests
In line with the Commission's Code of Conduct for Members of the Commission, each Member of the Commission publishes a declaration of interests. The declarations of the Commissioners-designate can be found on the European Parliament’s website, where they were published before the confirmation hearings of the Commissioners.
The declarations of interests of the new Members of the Commission will be updated and published here at the beginning of 2025 in line with Article 3 of the Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission. Machine-readable versions of all declarations will also be made available in line with the requirements of the Code of Conduct. The declarations of interests follow the requirements set out in Article 3 and Annex 1 of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners.
Biography
- 2024-present
European Commissioner for Equality; Preparedness and Crisis Management
- 2024
Member of the Parliament of the Brussels Region (on leave for ministerial duties)
- 2022–2024
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Federal Cultural Institutions - Belgian Federal Government
- 2021–2022
Co-project leader - Brussels’ candidacy for European Capital of Culture
- 2019
Change Management and Digital Leadership Training Solvay Brussels School in Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles
- 1993–2022
Journalist, reporter, news anchor, manager and documentary maker