The plenary session of the European Parliament has confirmed this Wednesday that it will defend that sex without consent is classified as a crime of rape and prosecuted throughout the European Union in negotiations with European governments to strengthen the protection of women against gender violence, a possibility that the Twenty-seven do not contemplate because they consider that the reform they are discussing does not offer the necessary legal basis to address rape.

In this way, the MEPs have validated the mandate agreed in the Civil Liberties and Women’s Rights commissions that will serve as a basis for discussion with the Council in the negotiations that will begin this Thursday.

The directive under development will penalize throughout the European Union abuses such as female genital mutilationhe cyber bullyingthe diffusion either non-consensual sharing of intimate images and hate speech or violence against women through networks.

The MEPs, picking up what was proposed by the European Commission as the basis for the negotiation, want the crime of rape to be criminally defined based on the absence of consent and, in addition, to specify that “fear or intimidation” are factors that can prevent women from acting or deciding freely before a possible aggressor.

Thus, the European parliamentary mandate calls for consent to be assessed based on the specific circumstances and adds additional criminal consequences for sexual assaults that are not considered rape despite the absence of consent.

They also advocate ensuring harsher penalties and expanding aggravating factors to include factors such as the victim’s residence status, pregnancy, being a victim of trafficking or living in a nursing home, centers for minors or for asylum seekers.

Violent acts against women or girls who are especially “inhumane, degrading or humiliating“They must also be considered aggravating factors when calculating penalties, as well as attacks against public figures, the so-called ‘honor killings’ or that the attack results in the suicide of dependents.

On June 9, the Twenty-seven also set their conditions for have stricter common norms against gender violence and other crimes against women, but they left out of their proposal any reference to the precise crime of rape, considering that the directive in question is not the appropriate framework and lacks a legal basis to address rape, which is already criminally prosecuted in the different national laws within the EU.