Six years after signing the Istanbul Convention, on Thursday 1 June the Council of the European Union approved its ratification by the EU. The Member States, meeting in the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council, gave the go-ahead for the ratification decisions in areas where the Union has exclusive competence (see EUROPE 13126/12).
Although there was no vote, a handful of countries that have not ratified the Convention expressed their reservations at a meeting of Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper II) (see EUROPE 13186/30). Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland have said they are opposed to ratification.
Firstly, these countries regret “the absence of common accord among Member States” and believe that “it is not appropriate for the European Union to accede to the Convention until all its Member States have ratified it at national level” (see EUROPE 12806/20).
Furthermore, they object to the substance of the decisions, invoking in particular the notion of gender, or “the provisions of the Convention on granting asylum on the grounds of sex/gender”.
The Czech Republic lodged a reservation and Lithuania did not express an opinion.
For its part, the European Commission welcomed the ratification. “Today, the European Union is sending a strong signal”, declared its President, Ursula von der Leyen.
Comments from Member States: https://aeur.eu/f/76q (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)