By Ruth Marsden
Eva-Britt Svensson, the chair of parliament’s women’s rights and gender equality committee, has called on the EU to do more to tackle violence against women.
Her comments came as events took place to mark the international day for the elimination of violence against women.
However, Svensson, rapporteur on an own initiative report on a new EU policy framework to fight violence against women, told TheParliament she was “very happy” with the outcome of a committee debate on the issue.
Svensson said the EU could look forward to a good resolution and that she hopes for a “positive proposal” when it goes to plenary next year.
“I am happy to be rapporteur and we have a good cooperation with the commission,” she said.
European Women’s Lobby (EWL) secretary general Myria Vassiliadou also told this website she was “quite surprised” with the outcome of the meeting.
“I had expected the commission to come up with concrete communication on this issue, including looking into passing legal initiatives with regards to violence against women,” she said. “However, nothing has actually been agreed on this.”
The EWL has written to Viviane Reding, the commission vice-president for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, in response to what the organisation describes as vague language used at the debate.
The lobby is pushing for immediate implementation of the council conclusions from March 2010, which calls on the commission to implement legal instruments for combating violence against women.
“We had hoped for more than what we heard,” Vassiliadou said. “The word ‘strategy’ was not mentioned once by the committee in two days.”
The EU currently has no binding legislation in place to deal with violence against women, despite a council backed resolution calling on the commission to devise a strategy on the issue.
As a result of the resolution, a charter was launched by the commission in March, including a promise to implement a “comprehensive and effective policy framework” to combat gender based violence.
And in September, the EU strategy for gender equality was published, including a strategy on combating violence against women.
However, the EWL accused the commission of reneging on these commitments in failing to mention work on violence against women in its 2011 programme.
