The negotiators of the European Parliament and the Member States of the European Union reached a political agreement this Tuesday to set the first community norm against sexist violence. A directive that will criminalize genital cutting, forced marriage or cyberbullying throughout the EU, but that leaves out the crime of rape in the absence of agreement to establish a definition based on consent.

The new directive, which still needs the approval of the European Parliament and the European Council, will nevertheless punish in all EU countries the female genital mutilationhe forced marriagethe non-consensual exchange of intimate images, the cyber bullyingpointing out on social networks and inciting hatred or violence against women through the Internet as forms of gender violence.

It also provides provisions for harmonize sanctions, aggravating circumstances, jurisdiction and deadlines of prescription and establishes minimum standards regarding the victims’ rights and protection measures and support, for example forcing the authorities to evaluate from the first moment the risk posed by the suspect in order to adapt protection measures.

In cases where the victim is a minorthe new legislation obliges the authorities of European countries to guarantee that it receives the assistance of professionals trained to work with children since, if the alleged aggressor is the parent responsible, the complaint does not depend on their consent and the person is protected. minor before informing him or her of the complaint.

No agreement to include rape

However, this first European directive on gender violence, although it contemplates a series of crimes against women that will be considered as such in all Member States, does not criminalize rape based on lack of consentone of the key demands of the European Parliament.

Months of negotiations thus culminated in a victory for the supporters of not mentioning the crime of rape in the directive, considering that there was no legal basis for it, as France, Germany or Hungarycompared to those who did want to include it: the entire European Parliament and 13 member states, including Spain.

“Today we have achieved a milestone, but it is the beginning, it is not the end,” indicated in this sense one of the negotiators of the European Parliament, the MEP of the European People’s Party Frances Fitzgerald, after the agreement. The conservative parliamentarian also recognized her “disappointment” due to the fact that finally sex without consent has not been included as rape in the law.

The legal services of the European Council had warned in a report that the reform being negotiated did not offer the necessary legal basis to address rape, since it would first need to be classified as a European crime and this would require a parallel unanimous decision. A reasoning that Fitzgerald rejected, arguing that experience with other directives – such as that on trafficking and sexual exploitation – show that there is room in the Treaties to advance along this line.

During the negotiations, the MEP explained, it was possible to convince a block of countries until they had the support from “13 member states”an insufficient majority, since a qualified majority of 55% of member countries – at least 15 – representing at least 65% of the European population was necessary.

Despite this, the ‘popular’ MEP appreciated that progress has been made in the ‘roadmap’ against gender violence, including the obligation of governments to take measures to raise awareness against sex without consent. In this sense, the European Parliament managed to include at the last minute in the text that awareness campaigns against rape “must be directed at increase awareness that sex without consent is considered a crime“and that consent”must be given voluntarily as a result of people’s free will.”

Political reactions

“We must continue, nothing is impossible,” said another of the negotiators, the socialist MEP. Evin Incirwhich recalled the difficulty of legislating with countries that, like Hungarythey flatly reject any decision on gender policies at the European level.

For her part, the MEP María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop claimed that the new regulations are “a giant step in favor of millions of women in the European Union”, but he regretted that “because of some States, such as France and Germany, rape will not be included as a criminal offense within the Directive”. However, he stressed that it has been possible to include “campaigns educational so that people internalize that sex without consent is rape.

“States will have to guarantee protection and access to Justice for all victims of all sexist violence, including rape, and they will be obliged to collect data that to date is conspicuous by its absence”, highlighted the MEP, pointing out that “in the future we will have to improve this directive” and that the door has been left open to modify it in five years from its transposition, “with the possibility of including new crimes.”

“Victims need support. Aggressors must face punishment. Women deserve protection. We will not stop here,” proclaimed the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, in a message on social networks in which he applauded that the European Union is a “pioneer” in the persecution of physical and psychological violence against women. The vice president of the European Commission in charge of rule of law, Vera Jourovoa, also celebrated what she described as a “historic” achievement.

For his part, the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchezalso referred to the agreement reached this Tuesday as “a big step forward for women’s rights in Europe, who will be more protected.” “For the first time, the European Union reaches an agreement on a specific Directive to combat violence against women,” stressed the Head of the Executive in a message on the social network ‘X’.