Concrete action to establish a European Day against Bullying and School Violence
16.9.2013
Question for written answer E-010389-13
to the Commission
Rule 117
Georgios Koumoutsakos (PPE) , Roberta Angelilli (PPE) , Maria Badia i Cutchet (S&D) , Alexander Alvaro (ALDE) , Keith Taylor (Verts/ALE)
On 4 February 2013 an announcement was made during Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg that the Written Declaration on establishing a European Day against Bullying and School Violence had been adopted. However, the Commission has so far announced no concrete plans for its implementation.
Moreover, incidents of both ‘online’ and ‘offline’ bullying seem to be rising sharply. In August 2013 alone at least three young children in the United Kingdom and Italy were driven to suicide because of bullying and cyber‐bullying.
Children are rightly considered to be the most vulnerable group in society. A European Day of this kind could help raise awareness and send out a strong message, especially ahead of the upcoming European elections. It should also be noted that the International Day of Non‐Violence — as referred to in the answer to Written Question E-008601/2012 — is a United Nations initiative to promote non‐violence. However, bullying is a specific form of violence which is not always physical and which has a wide variety of implications for both the perpetrator and the victim. It is also a very sensitive social issue, increasingly widespread and of growing importance.
In the light of the above:
- 1.Does the Commission agree that the fight against bullying could be promoted and thus strengthened by establishing a European Day against Bullying and School Violence? How does it plan to respond to Parliament’s request following the adoption of the aforementioned Written Declaration, especially ahead of the European elections?
- 2.Given that bullying tends to become a scourge, does the Commission plan to promote any actions or programmes to raise awareness and promote the prevention of bullying, especially in the light of the funding problems for the Safer Internet Programme under the Connecting Europe Facility?
OJ C 197, 26/06/2014