WRITTEN QUESTION P-1340/02

by Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(2 May 2002)

Subject: Violence against women

Combating violence against women is a matter which concerns the Community institutions and the Member States alike.

Does the Commission have details of Member States' policies in terms of legislation and the funding of measures to combat such violence? Does it intend to carry out comparative studies, draft a report and exchange best practices?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(30 May 2002)

In response to the resolution adopted by the Parliament in 1997, the Commission conducted a European campaign to raise awareness on violence against women in 1999/2000. One of the campaign products was the Eurobarometer survey on views of the European population on domestic violence against women (1999).

The European Policy Action Centre on Violence Against Women of the European Women's Lobby carried out two projects with financial support from the Daphne Initiative, forerunner of the current Community Daphne Programme:

- a study Unveiling the hidden data on domestic violence in the EU (1999), and

- a report Towards a common European framework to monitor progress in combating violence against women, containing proposals for a policy framework and indicators in different areas including legislation and case studies of models of good practice (2001).

Under the Community Programme on Gender Equality (2001-2005), the Commission co-financed the Informal Ministers' Conference on violence against women on 18 and 19 February 2002 in Santiago de Compostela, organised by the Spanish Presidency. At this conference, first results of a study and a draft Good Practice Guide were presented by the Presidency. The study analyses the replies to a questionnaire sent out to the Member States on measures and data in the field of violence against women, including legal, judicial and law-enforcement measures. The study is the basis for the Good Practice Guide which will be presented to the Employment and Social Policy Council in June 2002 and to the Justice and Home Affairs, Health, and Education Councils.

The conclusions of the conference were submitted to the Employment and Social Policy Council on 7 March 2002 at which Member States underlined the importance of a multi-disciplinary and multi-level approach to the eradication of violence against women, of the exchange of best practices within the Union, and of continuing to develop awareness campaigns.

A reference to this subject the need to establish an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach in order to eradicate all forms of violence against women with the co-operation of all the policy sectors involved was also included in the Barcelona European Council Conclusions (15 and 16 March 2002).

The Community Daphne Programme for the period 2000-2003 aims at fighting violence against children, young people and women. The goals of the Daphne Programme are a) to network organisations acting in the fight against violence in order to exchange good practice and b) to raise awareness amongst the general public but also amongst specific professions such as medical doctors, teachers, lawyers, social workers, etc. Details of all projects as well as further information including statistics and analysis of the achieved results and their impacts can be found on the Daphne website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/project/daphne/en/index.htm.