After the European Commission earlier this week (see EUROPE 12607/21), most of the political groups in the European Parliament on Wednesday 25 November called on the six EU Member States that have not yet done so (see EUROPE 12379/19) to ratify the Istanbul Convention.
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia have so far only signed this Council of Europe Convention on violence against women.
In addition, Poland has recently indicated its wish to withdraw from the text (see EUROPE 12540/1), as regretted by María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos (Renew Europe, Spain).
Arba Kokalari (EPP, Sweden), for her part, felt that the Convention and the fight against violence against women were unfairly victims of disinformation.
“Some say that the Convention support disruptive gender ideology, that the Convention will introduce a third sex, they say ‘we don’t need this Convention we already have legislation’. But this is untrue”, she insisted, pointing out that even in her country, which is often held up as an example, progress still needs to be made.
Unsurprisingly, the ID group, whose coordinator, Italian Silvia Sardone, called for “less feminist propaganda and more action”, and the ECR opposed the rest of the chamber. Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (Spain), speaking on behalf of the ECR, even describing the Convention as the “Trojan horse” of the “gender perspective”.
The European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, said that the Court of Justice of the EU would take its decision in the second quarter of 2021 as to whether the EU’s signature of the Convention was compatible with the European Treaties.
“Should the EU accession subsequently remain blocked, the Commission will propose in 2021 a legal initiative to prevent and combat violence against women in order to reach the same objectives as the Istanbul Convention”, the Commissioner assured. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)