Council of theEuropean Union
Brussels, 31 May 2023
(OR. en)9305/23
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Interinstitutional File:2022/0066(COD)

JAI 630
FREMP 147
COHOM 111
COPEN 158
EDUC 164
MIGR 168
SOC 321
ANTIDISCRIM 49
GENDER 51
JEUN 89
CODEC 886
NOTE
From:

General Secretariat of the Council

To:

Permanent Representatives Committee/Council

Subject:

Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on
combating violence against women and domestic violence‒General approach‒

Statements

Delegations will find in the Annex the statements entered by:–Belgium, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg jointly;–the Czech Republic and Estonia;–Hungary.

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Joint statement by Belgium, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg for the COREPER and Council
minutes on the general approach on the proposal for a directive of the European parliament
and the Council on combating violence against women and domestic violence
Belgium, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg strongly support the European Commission's proposal fora directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence. Gender-based violence,and in particular sexual violence, is a scourge that must be addressed in unison. This type ofviolence has shown to be so entrenched in our society that a national response, already pervasive
across Europe, is no longer sufficient. The figures are as worrying as ever and joint action is nowrequired.
We furthermore support the Presidency’s compromise text in order to reach a general approach at
the JHA Council meeting on 9 June 2023.
However, we strongly regret the lack of political ambition with regard to the criminalisation of theoffence of rape. In particular, we do not share the analysis of a number of Member States that thelegal basis in the treaties would be inadequate to establish minimum rules on the offence of rape.

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ENIn its opinion, the Legal Service of the Council has stated that the “Council could […] choose toendorse a more extensive reading of the legal basis as regards the notion of sexual exploitation ofwomen and children, on the basis of two aspects […], namely i) the use of the coordinating
conjunction “and” in the description of the area of crime in Article 83(1) TFEU, and ii) the fact thatin the Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation Directive, the legal basis of “sexual exploitationof children” has been interpreted somewhat extensively and used in order to establish minimum
rules concerning an offence where the exploitative element is less present but is rather focused on
the use of violence as a form of sexual abuse.” The configuration of society is such that being awoman or a child undoubtedly makes one more vulnerable to sexual violence and constitutes avulnerability to abuse that can be presumed. This approach justifies reasoning similar to that
adopted in the Child Sexual Abuse Directive Article 3, paragraph 5, (iii).
Given the disturbing evolution of gender-based violence in the past decades, these types of crimes
are unlikely to significantly decrease without additional EU action. Therefore, we deeply regret thismissed opportunity to set minimum rules regarding an effective fight against gender-based violence.

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Statement by Hungary
Hungary has concerns about the legal basis of the proposal on the Directive on combating violenceagainst women and domestic violence. Article 83 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union provides that “[t]he European Parliament and the Council may, by means of directives
adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, establish minimum rules concerning
the definition of criminal offences and sanctions in the areas of particularly serious crime with across-border dimension resulting from the nature or impact of such offences or from a special needto combat them on a common basis.” This Article lists “computer crime” among the so-calledeurocrimes. However, this cannot be construed to mean that the legislative powers established bythis Article would extend to the harmonisation of all criminal offences that are committed online or
by using computers.

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