The European Union has repeated its commitment to combat violence against women. During the conference on Friday 3 February, a few kilometres outside the Valletta summit, representatives from the European Parliament, Council and Commission adopted statement urging member states to tackle this scourge.
The statement was co-signed by Helena Dalli, Maltese Minister for Civil Liberties, Věra Jourová, EU Commissioner Gender Equality and Anna Maria Corazza Bildt MEP (EPP, Sweden). It calls on the member states to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovakia and the United Kingdom (half of the entire EU 28) have still not ratified this text). The declaration calls on member states “To engage in a constructive and open dialogue with the Presidency, the Commission and the Council of Europe to clarify that the definition of gender-based violence is the violence that happens to women because they are women and to reaffirm the ongoing commitment to solve the outstanding issues”. It also makes a recommendation, “To conclude and finalise the decision on the EU accession to the Convention with a meaningful scope”.
In reply to EUROPE, the Permanent Representation of Poland indicated that the country did not currently intend to leave the Convention and that they would revert to the declaration made in the middle of last January by the Polish Secretary of State for Equal Treatment, Adam Lipiński stating, “The Government has not undertaken and does not intend to undertake work that would lead to it leaving the Convention. The project for withdrawing from the Convention on 28 November 2016 and which had been prepared and distributed for opinion by the Minister of Justice, therefore remains examined”. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)