World Women’s Day is a reminder to celebrate women's achievements, increase visibility, and address inequality, 365 days a year! The past year has been difficult. The pandemic spared nobody and has been particularly challenging for women. Doctors, nurses, teachers, shop assistants – jobs often held by women – found themselves at the frontline of the pandemic while taking on more responsibilities at home. In its statement to mark World Women’s Day, the EU thanks women for their bravery, their compassion and their contribution in fighting this crisis.

Our times are marked by major geopolitical and economic power shifts, with increasingly confrontational and unilateralist relations between major powers. Yet growing global challenges call for more multilateral governance and rules-based international cooperation. The COVID-19 crisis exemplifies the need for multilateral solutions: a major global threat, it has created much-needed momentum for a coordinated, global crisis response and has exposed the need to make multilateralism fit  to cope with the new challenges