Fuldstændigt Forhandlingsreferat

Tirsdag den 25. november 2014 - Strasbourg

12. Bekæmpelse af vold mod kvinder (forhandling)

  Elnök. - A következő pont az Iratxe García Pérez által a Nőjogi és Esélyegyenlőségi Bizottság nevében a Bizottsághoz intézett, a nőkkel szembeni erőszak elleni küzdelemről szóló szóbeli választ igénylő kérdésről folytatott vita (O-000080/2014 – (2014/2916(RSP)) – B8-0039/2014)

  Iratxe García Pérez, Autora. - Señora Presidenta, señora Comisaria, siete mujeres al día son asesinadas en Europa, víctimas de violencia de género. Karen, Samantha, Margaret, Susan, Tania, Emma, Ana no son cifras. Son vidas truncadas, fruto de la injusticia, fruto de una sociedad desigual que ha permitido que una parte de la población se consideren dueños de la otra parte: de las mujeres.

El estudio de la Agencia de los Derechos Fundamentales de la Unión Europea hecho público este año arroja datos estremecedores. Más de nueve millones de mujeres en Europa han sido víctimas de algún tipo de violencia. Recordemos que no estamos hablando de un grupo marginal. Recordemos que estamos hablando de la mitad de la población. Mujeres mayores y jóvenes, que viven en ciudades y en el medio rural, que estudian, que trabajan, con buena situación económica o sin ella. Hablamos de mujeres. De todas las mujeres.

La Unión Europea debe ser un espacio libre de violencia. No vamos a aceptar que se ponga la excusa de la falta de competencias para no poner en marcha todas las iniciativas necesarias. La ciudadanía no va a entender que en Europa nos hayamos puesto de acuerdo para salvar los bancos y no nos pongamos de acuerdo para salvar las vidas de las mujeres.

Por eso, hoy, 25 de noviembre, manifestamos nuestra exigencia de poner en marcha una directiva contra la violencia de género. La pasada legislatura la mayoría de esta Cámara se pronunció a favor de esta propuesta. Creemos que es importante que se pongan en marcha legislaciones, tal y como ya se ha hecho en algunos Estados miembros.

La Unión Europea no puede mirar para otro lado cuando se están vulnerando de esta forma tan desgarradora los derechos fundamentales de un porcentaje tan amplio de la población: millones de mujeres que sufren violencia por el único hecho de ser mujeres.

Es necesaria una política integral que actúe en todos los ámbitos: en el de la prevención, en el del tratamiento; que comprenda medidas policiales, jurídicas, económicas, sociales, sin olvidar las educativas. Porque las mujeres tienen que saber que el Estado las ampara. No son sus problemas, son nuestros problemas. Ponerle cara, rostro, a la violencia que sufren las mujeres ayudará a que muchas de las que hoy se esconden tras la vergüenza y el sentimiento de culpabilidad sepan que es hora de acabar con el silencio.

Y parte de nuestro trabajo y compromiso reside en hacer visible una realidad que tiempo atrás quedaba en el ámbito de lo privado, sin ser considerada un problema social.

Queremos que 2016 sea declarado Año Europeo contra la Violencia de Género. Porque la toma de decisiones, la toma de conciencia de la ciudadanía es fundamental, pero también lo es la toma de conciencia de las instituciones comunitarias, que deben alcanzar un mayor compromiso con la sociedad a la que representan.

Hoy un gran número de organizaciones sociales y de mujeres están trabajando en el apoyo y tratamiento de las víctimas. Desde aquí expreso mi sentido reconocimiento a su labor y la exigencia de que el presupuesto comunitario en esta materia no se vea recortado. Ya hemos tenido que ver cómo en algunos países la política de recortes y austeridad ha supuesto un retroceso en las medidas que se estaban impulsando en la lucha contra la violencia de género. Por favor, no olvidemos que recortar en las políticas contra la violencia de género es recortar en vidas. Además, debemos tener en cuenta que muchas de las mujeres que no tienen recursos económicos en este momento no denuncian por no tener posibilidad de emprender vidas autónomas y libres.

Señora Comisaria, es difícil ver cómo, año tras año, el 25 de noviembre celebramos el mismo debate. Nos lamentamos de la injusticia. Pedimos mayor compromiso. Es hora de ponernos manos a la obra. No podemos esperar ni un minuto más. Que no sea uno más, porque entonces, para muchas mujeres, el próximo año ya habrá sido demasiado tarde.

(Aplausos)

  Elnök asszony. - Valóban, ez probléma a mindennapjainkat átszövő legváltozatosabb helyeken előkerülő társadalmi probléma. Tennivalók sora vár ránk és azontúl, hogy november 25-én minden évben beszélünk róla, jó lenne a tettek mezejére is lépni e tekintetben, hiszen ezek a nők tőlünk várják a segítséget. Megadom Jourová biztos asszonynak a hozzászólás lehetőségét, és Önnek, Biztos asszony több perc is rendelkezésre áll. Reméljük, a megoldást is megtaláljuk.

  Vĕra Jourová, Member of the Commission. - Madam President, I would like to thank the Members, and the members of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in particular, for the opportunity to answer the questions relating to this very serious subject. It is an important symbol that the debate is taking place today on 25 November: the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I hope that in one year’s time I will be allowed here to speak about better results and a better situation in the field we are going to speak about.

Violence against women remains one of the most serious human rights violations of our time. It is deeply rooted in gender inequalities and reinforces them. It is an extreme form of discrimination. One in three women in the European Union has experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of fifteen. I was myself shocked by reading the latest figures given by the Fundamental Rights Agency in Vienna. I did not know myself that the situation is that bad in the European Union.

I would like to stress in this place that for me, this problem is not a matter of statistics, because this concerns any individual. We had the Pope here today. He spoke about human dignity. This is what is at stake in this problem, in this field: not only human dignity but lives themselves, as you have said.

Violence against women affects society as a whole and is also costly. Parliament’s European added-value assessment estimated the direct cost of violence against women in the European Union at EUR 69 billion per year. It suggests that if we reduce violence by just 10%, the direct economic costs would be reduced by approximately EUR 7 billion a year. Tackling violence against women therefore makes economic sense too, but again I want to stress that I understand this problem as more than an economic problem, for sure. This is just an illustration of economic figures.

I can assure you that I share your commitment to eliminating violence against women. This will be reflected in the new Commission strategy for equality between women and men, in which there will be a chapter on gender-based violence. This strategy has been proposed by my services and by myself to be elaborated for the year 2015, and I am inviting a wide discussion on this topic under the preparatory work for this strategy.

Violence against women is a complex phenomenon and there is no magic wand which makes it disappear at once. If we really want to make a lasting difference then I believe that we have to address it as part of our greater common struggle for equality. Our action must therefore be steady, coherent and based on several pillars. These are: legislation, awareness-raising and funding, as well as improving knowledge and data collection. Allow me now to go through these instruments we have in hand.

As regards legislation: the EU has put in place a coherent legal framework to prevent all forms of violence against women and to support victims. This framework now includes the Equal Treatment Directive and its provisions on sexual harassment, the Directive on Trafficking in Human Beings, the Directive against Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography, the Directive on the European Protection Order applicable in criminal matters, the regulation setting the European Protection Order (covering civil matters), and last but not least, the Directive on the rights of crime victims, which emphasises the need for tailored protection and support for victims of gender-based violence. The Commission is now guiding and monitoring Member States in the effective implementation of this legal framework.

So this is the list of existing legislation, and the expression of the necessity to adopt new legislation may be one of the results of working on the new strategy on equality between men and women which we are going to prepare next year.

Prevention measures and the cross-border dimension of gender-based violence that you have raised in your question are addressed by the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe. Insofar as the EU has competence to sign and ratify the Convention, I believe we should consider EU accession to it.

It is equally important that Member States respect their commitments and ratify this Convention as soon as possible. To date, and over four years after the adoption of the Convention, 22 EU Member States have signed it, but only eight EU Member States have ratified it so far. So I ask all of those here who are from Member States which have not ratified the Convention to go to their governments, their national parliaments and their media and call for national ratifications of the first international legally binding instrument combating violence against women.

The second pillar of what we can – and what we must – do is awareness-raising and funding. The second pillar of the Commission’s approach to combating violence against women involves supporting awareness-raising and grassroots actions by Member States, civil society organisations and European networks. For example, this year EUR 9.5 million were allocated to supporting European networks and grassroots projects to combat violence against women under the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme. Our objective is to make a real difference in women’s and girls’ lives, also by the good use of this supporting money. The Commission will monitor and evaluate the ongoing awareness-raising and prevention efforts before deciding on possible future awareness-raising activities such as a European Year to End Violence against Women.

Improving our knowledge of the prevalence and causes of gender-based violence is essential, because it allows the situation to be monitored across the EU and holds governments and stakeholders accountable. It also helps us to formulate and implement better policies, beyond a mere benchmarking exercise. Comparable EU data shows us how to improve the prevention of violence and the protection of victims. We can learn from each other, from our successes and failures.

My services are working with Eurostat and the European Institute for Gender Equality, two key actors in the area which I believe can help fill these gaps. As a follow-up to the Directive on the Rights of Crime Victims, Eurostat, in cooperation with national statistical offices, started in 2014 to collect more detailed crime data recorded by the police and justice systems. The results, disaggregated by sex, will be published in 2015 and will constitute a step forward in our efforts to better understand gender-based violence.

However, to complement police records, comprehensive and in-depth surveys are necessary. The already-mentioned Fundamental Rights Agency survey paved the way in this field. It is now considered the gold standard, and we should be proud of this achievement. However, we cannot stop here and now. We need to repeat the Fundamental Rights Agency survey again, and we will make sure that such surveys are conducted at regular intervals to detect new trends and gaps.

In my view we need to use existing tools more effectively rather than establishing new bodies like the European Observatory on Violence against Women. Instead, we need an orchestrated effort from all relevant bodies, making full use of the existing expertise.

As you know, the Commission will adopt a new strategy on equality between women and men from 2015. Gender-based violence will be a priority of this strategy. I am committed to addressing new forms of violence emerging in an increasingly connected world, such as cyber violence and harassment. While new means of communication and technology offer great opportunities in combating violence against women, they can pose a new threat to the security of women as well. The most effective course of action will be determined and integrated in the new Commission strategy on equality between women and men.

This strategy must also include actions to engage men in combating violence against women, raising their awareness of the issue but also engaging them as actors for change. Only by working together will our efforts be fully effective. Finally, I would like to engage with you and listen to you and other stakeholders when developing this new strategy.

IN THE CHAIR: MAIREAD McGUINNESS
Vice-President