The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) welcomes the European Parliament’s historic milestone in the fight against violence against women and girls in Europe.
By voting in favor of a Report recommending to the Commission to include gender-based violence among EU crimes in Article 83(1) TFEU (2021/2035(INL)) with an absolute majority and 427 Votes in favour, the European Parliament sent a progressive signal that the European Commission cannot ignore. This report is indeed a very important step towards the Commission’s proposal on violence against women and girls to be issued in a few months. The European Parliament has now sent a strong message that it will support bold and ambitious EU legal actions to prevent and combat online and offline violence against women and girls.
Violence against women and girls threatens the security of half of the EU population, affecting over 250 million women and girls. 1 out of 3 women in Europe are affected by physical and/or sexual violence and 1 out of 2 women in the EU have experienced sexual harassment since the age of 15.
At the European Women’s Lobby we believe that the EU must urgently act to put an end to this serious violation of women’s rights. The inclusion of gender-based violence among EU crimes is key for the adoption of a strong law on all forms of violence against women and girls, as announced yesterday by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech.
Claire Fourçans, Director of Policy and Campaigns at EWL said “We warmly welcome the European Parliament’s political support to bold EU actions to end violence against women and girls. We are very concerned by the rise in violence seen since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. It is now urgent for the EU to take actions to end violence against women and girls, and we are pleased to see that the Parliament’s decision is going in this direction. We have high hopes that the upcoming proposal from the European Commission will be ambitious enough to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual exploitation and online violence.”
ENDS
Contacts:
Claire Fourçans, Policy and Campaigns Director EWL
claire.fourcans[at]womenlobby.org
For media enquiries:
Adriana Paradiso, Communications & Media Coordinator EWL
paradiso[at]womenlobby.org
+32 465576876
