The plenary session of the European Parliament opened on Monday 25 November with the celebration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (see EUROPE 13531/21).
The President, Roberta Metsola, who welcomed the adoption last spring of the first European text to combat violence against women and domestic violence (see EUROPE 13431/33), said: “This legislature must go even further”.
An observation shared by several MEPs during the debate on efforts to eliminate gender-based violence in the EU, who, while also acknowledging the work done on this directive, pointed out its shortcomings.
One of the text’s rapporteurs, Evin Incir (S&D, Swedish), regretted that some countries, such as France, had blocked a definition of rape based on consent, adding: “Only ‘yes’ means ‘yes’”.
Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe, French) also called for changes to the legal framework: “The European definition of rape must include consent, the right to abortion must be enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and each generation, one after the other, must be taught about consent”.
Mélissa Camara (Greens/EFA, French), for her part, called for the building of a “culture of consent” to counter the culture of rape, and stressed that this was an “urgent matter”.
The same for Eleonora Meleti (EPP, Greek): violence against women is “a crisis” which the European Union must tackle “quickly and effectively”, as it is used to doing at critical moments.
For her, this violence is based on deeply rooted stereotypes. Referring to the condemnation of practices in other countries, she deplored the fact that “in Europe, we allow models to persist and reproduce in which women are perceived as the weaker sex”.
Manon Aubry (The Left, French) has also made it her credo to transform societies, in particular through “sex education”, so that shame can change sides.
The French MEP also condemned the lack of concrete measures in the programme of the new European Commission, pointing out that the portfolio formerly exclusively dedicated to Equality and now entrusted to the Belgian Hadja Lahbib also includes crisis preparedness and management. This merging of powers had already been criticised by certain associations as a “risk of regression” (see EUROPE 13485/14). (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)