European Union

As thousands of delegates and observers are preparing to head to the small Polish mining town of Katowice, Jennifer Tollmann looks at what will make a difference at the 24th United Nations climate talks (COP24).

With parliament and member states both demanding action, a rare alliance has formed. If ever there was a popular, immediately effective and easy piece of regulation, it is this. So who at the Berlaymont is blocking a legal proposal?

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who was outspoken in his criticism of the austerity policies championed by Berlin at the height of the eurozone’s debt crisis, is to stand in European elections next year - in Germany.

EU foreign ministers meets on Monday to discuss the most contentious part - private finance tools - of aid in the 2021-2027 budget. We believe private companies have a role - but with strict conditions.

European Union leaders lavished their Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier with praise on Sunday (25 November) for securing a divorce agreement with the United Kingdom, strengthening the Frenchman's hand should the stars align for him to run for Commission president.

We need alternative narratives to tackle extremist discourses and radicalisation, and this is why we have to invest more in culture, writes Stavros Papagianneas.

All Visegrad countries have now rejected the United Nations pact on the treatment of migrants worldwide, after Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini on Sunday (25 November) announced his country's position after the EU summit.

Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea on Sunday (25 November) after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors, a move that risks igniting a dangerous new crisis between the two countries. The EU called for de-escalation.

By talking only to the Cuban government, and ignoring civil society groups, the EU is allowing the Cuban state to continue its programme of repressing democracy and human rights, write Ariadna Mena Rubio, Rosa Maria Payá and Erik Jennische.

At the press conference after the special European Council (Art.50) on Brexit and the meeting of the EU 27 leaders with UK Prime Minister May, President Donald Tusk presented the outcome of the meetings.

The European Council (Art. 50) adopted conclusions on the state of play of Brexit negotiations.

The European Commission has no plan to start a war with Italy over its budget, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said a day after a working dinner with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Saturday (24 November). But Rome confirmed that the main reforms included in the disputed budget will stay unchanged.

British PM Theresa May faces the fight of her life to push the Brexit deal through parliament, endorsed in just 30 minutes on Sunday in Brussels, amid warnings of no alternative.

EU leaders signed off on a historic deal on Sunday (25 November) that will see the UK formally leave the European Union, describing the day's events as "tragic" but the deal itself as "the best that could be had".

Prime Minister Theresa May made a dramatic direct appeal to the British public to support her deal to exit the European Union on Sunday (25 November) even as backing from her own party for the agreement appeared to elude her.

French President Emmanuel Macron will undoubtedly need to answer many domestic questions at the EU summit in Brussels on Friday (25 November), expected to endorse the Brexit deal.

Italy and the European Commission will work in the coming days to bring closer their positions on Italy's 2019 draft budget, which the EU executive says breaks EU laws by not reducing the country's huge public debt.

Donald Tusk sent the invitation letter for the special meeting of the European Council (Art. 50). EU27 leaders will meet to endorse the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Written by Rosamund Shreeves,

© sunsdesign0014 / Fotolia

This year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November marks just over a year since revelations about harassment by a prominent film industry executive and the resulting global sharing of women’s personal experiences on social media raised public awareness of the scale and omnipresence of sexual harassment. Over this time, the issue has remained in the public eye. The Pew Research Center estimates that the initial #MeToo hashtag on Twitter has been used around 19 million times over this period, whilst national variations have emerged, for instance in France, Italy and Spain. Similar hashtag campaigns have also emerged around other forms of gender-based violence. In Spain, for instance, #cuéntalo and nationwide protests were ignited this May, following a court decision to acquit five men of the crime of rape after they performed non-consensual sex with a teenager.

Are these movements prompting concrete and lasting change? A 2018 European Parliament study on bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace, public spaces and political life found that the #MeToo movement has not only been successful in evidencing and raising awareness of the magnitude of the phenomenon but also led to debate about its underlying causes and possible responses. Looking at the reaction in nine EU countries (Sweden, Finland, UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, France, Denmark and Greece), it concludes that the movement has led to the standards of what is considered acceptable being redrawn. The campaign has also been credited with providing the momentum to push through a new law in France outlawing street harassment (‘wolf-whistling’), and new legislation in Sweden, clarifying what qualifies as consent and removing the requirement to provide evidence of force and/or resistance in order to establish rape. A similar law has been proposed in Spain, where the greater awareness brought by #MeToo is reported to be connected to a rise in the number of women coming forward to report rape and assault.

However, both this study and the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency caution that much remains to be done to arrive at a clear picture of sexual harassment across the EU, particularly to ensure that voices from marginalised groups such as women with disabilities, Roma women, women from rural areas and undocumented migrant women are heard, to change attitudes, and to ensure that sexual harassment is addressed holistically, in connection with wider gender inequalities, particularly in view of the current backlash against gender equality both globally and within the EU itself.

One specific area that has come under the spotlight is the nature and extent of online sexual harassment and abuse, particularly against women in the public eye and in politics and the potential impact on women’s political participation and the representativeness of our political institutions. The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women has looked into both issues in her 2018 report to the UN General Assembly.

In October 2018, the IPU released a follow-up to its 2016 global study on sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians, focusing this time on the European region and including respondents from all EU Member States except Malta and Slovakia. The study confirms that female members of parliament (MPs) in Europe are particular targets of online attacks. Of the 81 female MPs interviewed, 58.2 % had experience of abusive, sexual or violent content and behaviour on social networks. Most of the threats against female MPs were also made via electronic communication. A recent study for the European Parliament also finds that women who have a public role, including journalists and politicians are particularly targeted by online and offline harassment. Studies conducted for national Parliaments paint a similar picture. In the UK, a House of Commons inquiry into abuse, hate and extremism online found that all MPs were vulnerable to abuse, but that it particularly affected women MPs, and that it was possible to ‘break that down even further to ethnic minority MPs and, in particular, ethnic minority women MPs’.

The studies highlight that this level of abuse is one of the factors that can dissuade women from entering politics and hinder them from fulfilling their mandate when they do take office. The fact that younger MPs under the age of 40 and MPs from minority groups are more likely to have experienced abuse in the media and on social networks is particularly concerning, as it presents a real threat to progress towards making politics more representative. Research by the European Institute for Gender Equality has also flagged the extent of cyber-harassment against young women in general and the chilling effect on young women engaging in debates and being politically active online. Female MPs taking a stance on gender equality and gender-based violence were also a particular target.

Academic research in the UK has found that events such as general elections and referenda see a huge spike in online hate. With the European elections fast approaching and online campaigning using social media becoming an increasingly important channel, there is much to be done to ensure that women are genuinely able to participate.

Action by the European Parliament

In the past year, the European Parliament has issued two resolutions highlighting the issue of sexual harassment:

• Resolution of 26 October 2017 on combating sexual harassment and abuse in the EU
• Resolution of 11 September 2018 on measures to prevent and combat mobbing and sexual harassment at the workplace, in public spaces and in political life in the EU (Rapporteur: Pina PICIERNO, Italy, S&D)

Read also:

• Violence against women in the EU: State of play, EPRS briefing, November 2018
• The Istanbul Convention: A tool to tackle violence against women and girls, EPRS at a glance, November 2018
• Sexual harassment of women in the EU, EPRS infographic March 2018
• Bullying and sexual harassment at the workplace, in public spaces, and political life in the EU, Pol Dep C, March 2018
• Cyber violence and hate speech online against women, Pol Dep C, September 2018

The Brexit deal is good to go. The Spanish government announced on Saturday (24 November) that it would back the deal after striking a last-minute agreement to ensure any agreement for the future relationship with the UK will not automatically apply to Gibraltar.