Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, the College of Commissioners adopted the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating violence against women and domestic violence. The Parliament has been requesting this for a long time, including recently in the report on identifying gender-based violence as a new area of crime listed in Article 83(1) TFEU, which the European Parliament adopted in September 2021.
In this report, the Parliament called on the Commission to propose a comprehensive Directive on gender-based violence that implements the standards of the Istanbul Convention and other international standards such as the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on gender-based violence, and specified the themes that should be covered by the Directive.
Reacting to this proposal by the Commission, Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee Chair Robert Biedroń said: “We welcome this much-needed proposal wholeheartedly. Our committee will study it with utmost attention and we are prepared to work together with the Council on the legislative process so that the EU becomes a safe place, free from violence for all women and girls. Moreover, it is clear that the impact of the COVID-19 crisis resulted in a dramatic increase in gender-based violence, in particular intimate partner violence, and this instrument is needed now more than ever.”
