All crime victims should have the same basic rights across the EU, and should have their specific needs assessed, under a draft EU directive setting minimum protection standards unanimously endorsed by the Civil Liberties and Women’s Rights committees on Tuesday. An estimated 75 million people are victims of crime every year in the EU.

The gender pay gap is best tackled at EU level, said 47% of the Europeans interviewed for a Eurobarometer poll presented on Wednesday by Women's Rights Committee Chair Mikael Gustafsson (GUE/NGL, SE). However, respondents were almost evenly divided on how best to close the gap: by facilitating access to jobs for all (27%), imposing penalties on firms (26%), or enforcing transparent pay scales (24%).

Parliament will mark International Women's Day on 8 March with a meeting between MEPs and national MPs on "Equal pay for work of equal value", which will assess the impact of measures to reduce the gender pay gap and consider possible further initiatives to tackle its causes. President Martin Schulz will open the debate on Thursday at 9 a.m.

Introducing quotas to increase women's representation in political, administrative and business bodies and reducing the pay gap between women and men to respond to the current crisis are among the many proposals approved on Tuesday by the Committee on Women's Rights.

Crime victims who are granted protection in one EU Member State will be able to get similar protection if they move to another, under new European Protection Order rules endorsed by the Civil Liberties and the Women's Rights Committees on Monday. Protection would be available to, for instance, victims of gender violence, harassment, abduction, stalking or attempted murder.

Crime victims who are granted protection in one EU Member State will be able to get similar protection if they move to another, under a new European Protection Order rules endorsed by the Civil Liberties and the Women's Rights Committees on Tuesday. Protection would be available to, for instance, victims of gender violence, harassment, abduction, stalking or attempted murder.

Jan Mulder (ALDE, NL) was elected chair of the Budgetary Control Committee on Monday. He replaces Italian liberal Luigi de Magistris, who left the European Parliament to become mayor of the city of Naples. Mikael Gustafsson (GUE/NGL, SE) became the first man to be elected chair of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee, also on Monday.

EU legislation is needed to boost the number of women in decision-making positions to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020, says a draft resolution approved by the EP Women's Rights Committee on Wednesday. In addition, better use could be made of the funding opportunities available for female entrepreneurs, say MEPs in a separate resolution.

Rape and other sexual violence against women should be recognised as a crime throughout the EU, and its perpetrators prosecuted automatically, said the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee on Tuesday, in a resolution calling for an EU directive to combat gender-based violence.

Quotas are needed to ensure equal representation of women in the private and public sectors, agreed most participants in a meeting held by the EP Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee with national parliaments' representatives on Thursday, ahead of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day on 8 March. Speakers also advocated changing national electoral rules to increase women's representation at local, regional and national level in politics.