MEPs adopted, on Thursday 16 December, by an overwhelming majority (516 votes in favour, 86 against and 75 abstentions), a new resolution calling for stronger internal measures to combat sexual harassment and assault (see EUROPE 12846/11).
A resolution on the subject had already been approved in October 2017 (see EUROPE 11892/26). However, the Parliament acknowledged on Thursday that “the progress made in tackling the problem of sexual harassment after 3 years of the #MeToo movement is not enough and there are still many improvements to be made”.
The Parliament therefore reiterated their demand for mandatory anti-harassment training for all MEPs.
This request was already made in 2017. Since then, training has been offered, but on a voluntary basis.
Some MEPs from the EPP group had objected internally to making such training compulsory, claiming that it would run counter to their freedom of mandate. However, their argument was deemed inadmissible by the Parliament’s legal services in an opinion issued at the end of November, several institutional sources confirmed to EUROPE.
One part of the group tried, nevertheless, to block again (see EUROPE 12849/17) the introduction of these mandatory training courses during Thursday’s vote by tabling an amendment.
The latter suggested that the training currently provided should only be made mandatory if there were translation into all EU official languages and that the publication on the Parliament’s website of the list of MEPs who have attended would not be enough to increase attendance. However, the amendment was overwhelmingly rejected (383 votes against, 189 for and 101 abstentions).
In addition, in their resolution, MEPs call for an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the current harassment prevention system and for the involvement of doctors in the Parliament’s harassment committee.
For more details: https://bit.ly/3q8WOnK (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)