The European Parliament’s Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) continued its discussions on Tuesday 25 April on a draft own-initiative report on the “regulation of prostitution in the EU” (see EUROPE 13108/21). On the agenda: a brief examination of the 389 amendments.
The response to the text put forward by Maria Noichl (S&D, German) is far from unanimous. While FEMM members agree on a range of issues, such as the need to develop “exit strategies” from sex work, the criminalisation of customers is divisive, even within political groups. “I think there is very little possibility to find a middle way, and I think it will come down to the voting result”, the rapporteur concluded.
Christine Schneider (EPP, German), Karen Melchior (Renew Europe, Danish) and Monika Vana (Greens/EFA, Austrian), the shadow rapporteurs, therefore called for the text to be focused on issues on which there is consensus. In fact, a report on the subject in 2014 had already sparked disagreements and led to fragmented votes within the groups (see EUROPE 11027/8).
Unwilling to revisit criminalisation, Mrs Noichl said that while there would be negotiations about “whether demand should be reduced at all, how can demand be reduced and should there be punishments” and it will ultimately be up to the House to decide. “Politics is about finding majority and seeing where the majority lies”, she concluded.
On the other hand, despite calls for compromise, Ms Vana (Greens/EFA, Austrian) and Ms Melchior stressed that they would reject a report equating sex work with trafficking or sexual exploitation. On the contrary, Ms Noichl, or Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (ECR, Spanish), consider that prostitution in all its forms is gender violence.
See the text of the report: https://aeur.eu/f/6j9
And the amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/6ja (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)