The European Centre of the International Council of Women (ECICW) acknowledges the European Commission’s communication on the European Citizens’ Initiative My Voice, My Choice, launched notably by Slovenia and supported by over one million citizens across the European Union.

We commend the determination of Slovenia and the organisers of the ECI, who successfully carried this demanding yet ambitious democratic process to completion. We welcome the Commission’s response as a meaningful step forward, opening a tangible pathway toward improved access to safe abortion across Europe. The Commission’s explicit acknowledgment that existing EU funds may be mobilised to enhance access to legal abortion services sends a strong political signal. It also affirms that access to abortion is fundamentally a matter of public health, equality, and fundamental rights.

At the same time, ECICW notes that the response only partially meets the expectations expressed through this unprecedented citizen mobilisation. The absence of a dedicated legislative proposal, and the reliance on the voluntary use of existing funding mechanisms, leave significant inequalities between women across Member States unresolved. Respect for national competences must not become a pretext for perpetuating disparities that weaken the very principle of equality within the Union.

This development creates an opportunity — but it does not yet guarantee an effective and equal right for all women. It is now up to Member States to make full use of this possibility, and upon civil society to ensure that it translates into concrete change.

ECICW will remain fully mobilised to ensure that access to safe and legal abortion is unequivocally recognised as an essential component of women’s human rights in Europe, and that European solidarity is not only proclaimed, but delivered in practice.

A Europe for women cannot be built on shifting standards or selective commitments.