Debate on Ending sexual harassment and violence against women in public spaces, during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg. Statements by Corina CRETU, Member of the EC in charge of Regional Policy, Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Marie ARENA (S&D, BE), Angelika MLINAR (ALDE, AT), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE), Clare MOODY (S&D, UK), Jordi SEBASTIA (Greens/EFA, ES)

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

REINTKE, Terry (Greens/EFA, DE)

ARENA, Maria (S&D, BE)

CREȚU, Corina (S&D, RO)

violence against women (T)

MLINAR, Angelika (ALDE, AT)

ERNST, Cornelia (The Left, DE)

MOODY, Clare (S&D, UK)

SEBASTIA TALAVERA, Jordi Vicent (Greens/EFA, ES)

Ending sexual harassment and violence against women in public spaces

SOUNDBITE (English), Corina CRETU, Member of the EC in charge of Regional Policy, We must ensure that our streets, squares and stations are safe for women and girls. We must create the environment where victims are not afraid to report sexual harassment and violence as they would if they had become victims of robbery and we must make sure that those perpetrators are prosecuted and convicted.

SOUNDBITE (German), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), National legislation in many countries oblige that women must proof how the attacks have taken place and it isn't the perpetrators who must clarify the facts and the situation for women who don't like to go public and speak to anybody, it is very difficult and very precarious.

SOUNDBITE (French), Marie ARENA (S&amp;D, BE), In Europe one out of three women has been or will be a victim of violence and that violence in most cases is caused by a spouse, a friend or a family member and not necessarily by a migrant. 13million women suffered from violence in 2014 and that was well before the migration crisis. No to violence against women, the violence didn't wait for migrants to hit people and we should follow up all perpetrators from every class or origin they come from.

SOUNDBITE (German), Angelika MLINAR (ALDE, AT), Women have been complaining for years about sexual harassment on the October fest, what happened, nothing. And certainly didn't attract any media attention. So I'm saying thank you for all the feminist support, the last thing we really need now is to have opportunism feminism.

SOUNDBITE (German), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), To tackle these big problems and to do our utmost to make equality an reality we cannot stop at proposing awareness raising campaigns, however important and powerful these are. If we want to change the situation of women and girls in the European Union to the better we need to tackle the legal short comings that still exist with regards to sexual violence against women.

SOUNDBITE (German), Cornelia ERNST (GUE/NGL, DE), We need strong legal attack on sexism which needs to regard as a criminal offence, women in the future shouldn't be afraid of tacking their complaints to Court and it should never again happen that the police look the other way when crime is carried out on women.

SOUNDBITE (English), Clare MOODY (S&amp;D, UK), So harassment of women is not a new phenomenon, violence and discrimination in Europe predates the events in Cologne and elsewhere. I have and will always condemn these actions and whoever perpetrates them and I'm proud that I and my colleagues have been promoting actions to take practical steps to address this problem, however in all the time I have been doing this i have never some of those who are shouting the loudest now standing shoulder to shoulder with me fighting for women's rights before.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Jordi SEBASTI&#192; (Greens/EFA, ES), Are you finally going a European directive that is what we really need, we are trying to compartmentalize this but this is discussion violence against women in the public space, but it also happens in the private space.