Delivering her annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday 13 September, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called for support for criminalisation and a common definition of rape within the EU.
Combating gender-based violence
“I would like that we cast into law another basic principle: No, means no!”, she declared, referring to the draft directive aimed at combating violence against women.
The text is currently being negotiated between the EU Council and the European Parliament. However, in their position (‘general approach’), the Member States proposed withdrawing the article relating to the criminalisation of rape in the absence of consent (see EUROPE 13198/1). Although all the EU27 countries consider rape to be an offence, they do not all have the same definition.
The President’s statement “sums up the importance of this Directive: that without a yes, there is no consent”, insisted the co-rapporteurs, Frances Fitzgerald (EPP, Irish) and Evin Incir (S&D, Swedish). “Our position is clear; the Member States must know that there cannot be a Directive without paragraphs on consent”, they reiterated (see EUROPE 13221/26).
S&D President Iratxe García Pérez (Spanish) called for rape to be included on the list of European crimes. However, this procedure would require unanimity in the Council.
“Innovative and pioneering work”
Ms von der Leyen also thanked the MEPs “for the ground-breaking and pioneering work we did on gender equality”.
She recalled that during her mandate, the EU adopted the directive introducing minimum quotas for the representation of women on boards of directors (see EUROPE 13068/15) and the directive on transparency of remuneration (see EUROPE 13153/13). At the same time, the EU ratified the Istanbul Convention under the Swedish Presidency of the Council (see EUROPE 13205/21).
The SOTEU speech: https://aeur.eu/f/8it (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)