In the wake of the MeToo movement in 2017, measures were taken internally in the European Parliament to combat sexual harassment and assault. However, as these measures “are not strong enough”, “there are still cases of sexual harassment in the Parliament and victims do not dare to use the existing channels” to protect themselves, warn MEPs in a draft resolution which will be debated in Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights (FEMM) on Monday 6 December.
The draft resolution, a copy of which was obtained by EUROPE, echoes the opinion editorial signed by 284 group advisors, parliamentary assistants and trainees in the Parliament on 25 November (see EUROPE 12839/32).
In it, MEPs regret that the measures taken to combat sexual harassment and assault within the institution are still not in line with the demands made by their colleagues back in 2017 (see EUROPE 11892/26).
Compulsory training. They should therefore reiterate their call for mandatory anti-harassment training to be introduced as soon as possible and for such training to be provided to newly elected MEPs from the start of their mandate.
Voluntary training “has proven to be insufficient”, argue the signatories of the draft resolution.
Furthermore, they should call on Parliament’s services to make such training available in all official EU languages or with interpretation, and create a public list of MEPs who have participated in the training.
Advisory committees. MEPs are also expected to call for changes to the two advisory committees set up in 2017 to deal with complaints from accredited parliamentary assistants against MEPs, and the other involving complaints about Parliamentary staff.
The draft resolution suggests that these committees publish their annual monitoring reports and risk assessments on the Parliament’s website and calls for them to be subject to an evaluation by external auditors.
MEPs are also considering calling for a reform of the composition of the committees so that, for example, independent experts such as doctors or legal experts can sit as official members.
The resolution should also call on the other EU institutions to take action by calling for the establishment of a network of ombudsmen in each institution to support victims of harassment.
Adoption of the text. On Monday 6 December, the members of the FEMM Committee will be asked to vote, to begin with, on certain parts of the text.
At the request of the ECR group, the paragraphs requesting the introduction of compulsory training and the publication of the list of trained MEPs will be voted on.
The FEMM Committee will then vote on the final text on Thursday 9 December. The aim is to submit the text to a vote of the whole Parliament the following week. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)