Debate: The International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and the State of play on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention
Date: THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2021
Speaker: Helena Dalli
Language: EN

I reaffirm the Commission’s strong stance on combating all forms of violence against women and domestic violence. While marking this day remains important to continue raising awareness and mobilising all actors to take firm action, I would like to remind this House that our efforts go beyond the 25th of November, of course. Together with President von der Leyen and Vice—President Jourová, we have spoken out clearly on this matter and we have put forward a series of actions that will make a difference to women and girls across Europe. In March 2020, the Gender Equality Strategy set out ambitious actions, policy objectives and goals to strive towards a Union of equality, free from all forms of violence against women and girls. As stressed in this strategy, the EU’s accession to the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence is a key priority for this Commission. The Istanbul Convention is a comprehensive and powerful legal instrument to prevent and combat gender—based and domestic violence and protect victims. It remains the gold standard for the work we do within the EU. The recent opinion of the European Court of Justice on the Istanbul Convention allows the Council to explore the way forward. The Commission remains fully supportive of the EU’s swift accession to the Convention. However, as previously announced in this House, we cannot keep on running on the spot, especially since, in the light of the Court’s Opinion, the date of the EU’s accession to the Convention is not certain. We need an EU instrument addressing violence against women and domestic violence via binding obligations on Member States that are enforceable by the Commission. Taking the Court’s opinion into consideration, we are now examining how to best take forward the announced legislative proposal. Early 2022, the Commission will table a directive to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. The proposal will be comprehensive and will build on the objective of the Istanbul Convention ensuring that EU Member States have effective measures in place to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence and support victims. But it will also address recent phenomena of violence against women, which have become so visible under COVID times, such as digitally based violence or domestic violence. In December, the Commission will also table a proposal to trigger a Council decision to extend the list of Europe crimes to include hate crime and hate speech. If this is achieved, the Commission would be able to propose an EU level criminalisation of hate speech and hate crime on grounds of sex and sexual orientation, amongst other grounds. These measures will be accompanied by a set of other measures aimed at eliminating violence against women, such as a recommendation on the prevention of harmful practices and the launch of an EU network on the prevention of gender—based violence. The work on these two initiatives will start next year. Both actions will focus on the importance of the pre—emptive measures and on the education of boys and girls from an early age about gender equality and non—violent relationships. Moreover, the Commission continues to fund organisations and projects working on the ground to eliminate violence against women and girls.