Press Statement from Frances Fitzgerald MEP
Friday 10th December 2021
EU Commission - new and critical interventions for 2022 to eradicate violence against women and girls - Fitzgerald
Speaking today in Dublin at an event hosted by the National Women’s Council of Ireland to mark the close of the ‘16 Days of Action to End Violence Against Women’ campaign, MEP for Dublin Frances Fitzgerald said, “Every year it is estimated that 87,000 women worldwide are killed, 50,300 of them by an intimate partner or family member. Over a 10 year period, this amounts to a city the size of Marseille, Amsterdam or Zagreb disappearing from the world. These figures are staggering, and they apply just to femicide, the most extreme form of violence against women. Therefore the prevalence of violence against women worldwide in reality is much, much higher.”
Ms. Fitzgerald has been calling for action from the European Commission in this area and yesterday Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič confirmed to the European Parliament that in early 2022, the Commission will adopt a directive on violence against women and domestic violence with a focus on prevention, protection, support and access to justice, including criminalisation of specific forms of gender-based violence. The proposal will also cover measures to prevent violence against women and domestic violence, protect and support victims, improve access to justice, and better coordination, including specific measures on the protection of child witnesses and victims of domestic violence as well as on the protection of migrant women.
“Gender based violence is a crime that damages our society as a whole, and causes great harm to individuals. To tackle such a pervasive phenomenon, a whole-of-society approach is needed. I welcome the commitment by the European Commission to tackling this crime at EU level, as this is not just an issue for any single country.”
“Recent figures from the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) tell us that Gender Based Violence costs the EU-27 €366 billion each year, including a cost of €4 billion for Ireland. We cannot afford to ignore this problem, and I’m glad to see the European Commission taking action to end the cycle of violence. I look forward to receiving the proposal and to working on it closely within the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee in the European Parliament,” she concluded.
ENDS
Contact:
Una Clarke: una.clarke@europarl.europa.eu
