The European Parliament is determined to make the issue of violence against women one of the priorities of the European Commission. On the occasion of a conference on this theme, four MEPs announced the launch of a petition for a European Year of Combating Violence Against Women. Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), Barbara Matera (EPP, Italy), Antonyia Parvanova (ALDE, Bulgaria) and Marije Cornelissen (Greens-EFA, Netherlands) thus hope to collect one million signatures over the coming 12 months, in order to “make the European Commission give in”.

“This year will make it possible to increase public awareness about the problem of violence against women,” declared Tarabella. He had already expressed this idea in his annual report on equality between men and women in the EU and submitted, with other MEPs, a written declaration in this respect. “Furthermore, my report [which also called for the Commission to propose a directive on preventing and combating all forms of violence against women] had received widespread support at the European Parliament,” he said, before calling on European citizens to add their voice to this appeal.

The Belgian Minister for Employment and Equal Opportunities, Joëlle Milquet, supported a “coherent and voluntary strategy at EU level in terms of violence against women”. In this respect, she committed to drawing up conclusions at the Employment and Social Affairs Council in December.

The final word came from former Belgian MEP Antoinette Spaak, who regretted “that the European Commission has not taken on its role [because] in the end, in thirty years, things have not really moved forward”.

The petition is available at www.violenceagainstwomen.eu