After triggering a cascade of international condemnations (see EUROPE 12683/26), Turkey’s decision to leave the Istanbul Convention has prompted a last-minute addition to the agenda of the European Parliament’s plenary session.
On Thursday 25 March, MEPs debated this first departure from the Council of Europe’s Convention on Violence against Women, a text that signatory States are obliged to align themselves with and that Turkey was the first to join.
The coordinators of the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left strongly condemned the decision of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, taken by decree on the night of 19-20 March. It was described as “unconscionable, shameful, inhumane” by Frances Fitzgerald (EPP, Ireland) and “untenable, unacceptable and shameful” by Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, Spain).
Many MEPs, as well as Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli and Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs Ana Paula Zacarias, considered the withdrawal all the more serious as it comes at a time of increasing violence against women (see EUROPE 12457/17).
“Not every discussion in the European Parliament is about life and death, but this one is”, Fitzgerald argued, with figures to back it up: 300 known and 171 suspected femicides were recorded in Turkey in 2020 by the Turkish association “We Will Stop Femicide”.
European Council reaction
Many, like Zacarias, also considered the decision “a grave matter, both in itself and because it’s also combined with Turkey’s other failures to respect democracy and the Rule of law” (see EUROPE 12683/2): failures which the Heads of State or Government had planned to discuss that afternoon (see EUROPE 12685/3).
Several MEPs pleaded for leaders to talk about and not to downplay the decision to leave the Convention.
“Now more than ever, it is essential that State parties both within and outside the EU uphold the standards of the Istanbul Convention”, Commissioner Dalli stressed, calling it “the moment to show leadership”.
An example for others?
Some in the parliamentary assembly did not hide their fear that European leaders would follow President Erdoğan’s lead.
“We will see that soon the Polish government will decide to do the same”, Iratxe García Pérez worried.
The Polish Minister of Justice had indeed expressed his intention this summer to request that Poland withdraw from the Istanbul Convention (see EUROPE 12536/7). The Slovak (see EUROPE 12379/19) and Hungarian (see EUROPE 12481/15) national parliaments have opposed its ratification.
A total of six Member States, as well as the EU itself, have not ratified the text, despite repeated calls from MEPs (see EUROPE 12609/5). (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)