11th – 12th of January: Official opening of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union
The Minister for Gender Equality joins the Government and the European Commission for the grand opening of the Danish EU Presidency 2012 at the DR Concert Hall in Copenhagen as well as for the working sessions with the Commission on future European priorities.

25th of January: Launching of the Danish presidency programme for the European Parliament
The Minister for Gender Equality presents the Danish priorities and activities for the FEMM Committee at the European Parliament together with The Minister for Employment.

26th – 27th of January: High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming (HLG) meeting in Copenhagen
The HLG consists of high level officials from the national gender equality ministries who meet once during every presidency in order to discus and exchange knowledge on how to promote gender equality within the EU. The European Commission is hosting the meeting together with the Danish Presidency.

2nd and 3rd of February: Meeting of National Rapporteurs and Equivalent Mechanisms on trafficking in human beings
The European Commission organises a meeting of the network of rapporteurs and similar mechanisms and Denmark will co-chair the exchange of best practises in order to combat trafficking in human beings within the EU.

Read more about the network here.
Read more about the Danish action plan to combat trafficking in human beings here.

17th of February: EPCSO council meeting in Bruxelles
The Danish Presidency wishes to promote a more equal balance of women and men at European and national company boards, and to this end a policy debate on different methods to promote the share of women on boards will take place at the council meeting.

27th of February to 9th of March: The meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The annual meeting of the CSW will focus on the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty, hunger eradication, development and current challenges. The Danish Presidency will work with the European Union’s external action services to ensure progress in the negotiations of the agreed conclusions as well as in the resolutions.

11th – 12th of May: Expert seminar on the promotion of the share of women on company boards (Oslo)
Norway will be hosting a seminar on best practises to promote the share of women on company boards co-chaired by UK and the Danish Presidency. Denmark will present the initiative “Operation Chain Reaction” which is based on a unique cooperation between the government and private actors including headhunting firms and company boards in order to recruit more women as board members.

16th of May: Expert seminar on breaking down the gender-based choices of education The Danish Presidency wishes to draw attention to the importance of gender segregated educational choices and its consequences for the youth’s inclusion and mobility on the labour market.

The objective of the work seminar is to prepare recommendations for the Council of the EU on how the EU as a collective political body can effectively reverse the trend of segregated educational choices.

14th and 15th of June: Conference on gender equality and health in Europe (Copenhagen)
Women and men have different patterns of lifestyle and health, and in order to ensure and qualify a gender sensitive approach to health issues in the future an international conference will take place in Copenhagen organised by European Men’s Health Forum, European Institute of Women’s Health and European Patient Forum as well as Danish Men’s Health Society.

21st of June: EPSCO council meeting in Luxembourg
As part of the European Union’s follow-up of the UN Beijing Platform for Action, the Danish Presidency will present a council conclusion for adoption at the council meeting in June. The Presidency has focused on area K in the UN action plan: Women and the environment. The council conclusion will target the emerging issue of gender and climate change and propose a set of indicators in order for the EU to monitor progress in this area in the future.