On Tuesday 28 February, the European Parliament’s Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) discussed a draft own-initiative report on the aftermath of the MeToo movement (see EUROPE 12839/32) and harassment in the European institutions. In total, MEPs tabled 241 amendments.
The original report tackles, among other things, the measures taken by the European Parliament to combat sexual harassment. These include the introduction of training on the subject, which has remained optional despite the call in a December 2021 resolution to make it compulsory (see EUROPE 12856/18). Despite the consensus on the subject and amendments hammering home the need for it, only “260 out of 705 MEPs have undertaken the training, which is 37%. This is far lower than the number of MEPs [516, editor's note] who voted the previous resolution”, highlighted Michal Šimečka (S&D, Slovakia), rapporteur (see EUROPE 13080/18).
As a reminder, in 2021, some of the elected members of the EPP, as well as the ECR and ID groups, opposed making training compulsory (see EUROPE 12849/17).
The changes suggested by MEPs also include a strengthening within the European Parliament and the other EU institutions in relation to victim support. “From the low number of reporting of sexual harassments, we see that the old culture of silence still lingers”, the rapporteur summarised, promising “strong focus” to this issue in his compromise amendments.
Finally, at the request of the members, Mr Šimečka will propose to extend the scope of his report to also cover the assessment of the situation within the Member States.
The FEMM Committee will decide on a consolidated text in April.
To read the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/5jd
And the amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/5je (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)