Discussions at the seminar enabled participants to share and learn from further good practices at the national level with experiences ranging from Member States with well-established gender budgeting systems to those that still have some way to go. The discussions acknowledged the significant challenges in getting gender budgeting on national agendas faced with a Europe-wide backlash against equality issues and the need for a strong political commitment to the process. Participants agreed that there was a need to make the business case for gender budgeting and that a carrots and stick approach with laws, incentives and sanctions can boost take up. There were also calls for an EU Directive on Gender Budgeting, including a definition. Other issues raised included the need to build expertise in gender budgeting through education and training, the lack of critical gender-disaggregated data in many Member States, the need to make gender budgeting part of the budgetary cycle as well as the Commission’s pivotal role in capacity building through initiatives like the Mutual Learning Programme and TSI Gender Flagship project. Overall, participants concluded that the seminar had given them fresh ideas about practical implementation of gender responsive budgeting and next steps to take to roll out gender and equality budgeting EU-wide through the ‘velvet triangle’ of European Commission, government and civil society.