Dear Colleague,We write to you as the Chair of theBureau High-level Group on Gender Equality andDiversityand the Chair of theCommittee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.These are the two main bodies in the European Parliament that deal with the questionof gender equality - the Bureau High-level Group as concerns internal staff mattersand the Committee as concerns EU legislation in the field.The two bodies would like to organise a joint event on the

3rd October 2012

with theparticipation of Members of national Parliaments in order to discuss gender equalityon a broad basis and to have an exchange of best practices among parliamentarianscoming from the EU. To this extent, we are therefore inviting you to take part in thisevent, and would be honoured if you would accept the invitation.The event is foreseen to be split into two sessions. The first session in the morningwill focus on how gender equality features in the legislation process both at EU leveland at national Member State level, and the second session in the afternoon will focuson the internal procedures on promoting gender equality within Parliaments across theEU both on staff level and political level. This should hopefully allow for theparticipants to have a focused discussion on how to ensure gender equality as well asdiversity in general. Specialised media focusing on gender issues will also be invitedto the event, in order to follow the debate taking place and to communicate the results.We would hope to have a high participation from national Parliaments and I amtherefore pleased to invite the Chair of the relevant Committee(s) from every nationalParliament or whoever should be designated to represent, to attend the meeting.Should you be unable to attend, we would welcome any written contribution whichwould be distributed to our respective Members and other participants.You will already hereto find a draft programme attached. The practical detailsregarding the meeting as well as a detailed final programme will be forwarded in duecourse to your Parliament's services for relations with the European Parliament.

3rd October 2012

Roberta Angelilli

Mikael Gustafsson