Debate during the plenary session of February in Strasbourg on the Zero tolerance for female genital mutilation. Statements by Iratxe GARC&Iacute;A P&Eacute;REZ (S&amp;D, ES),&nbsp;Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality,&nbsp;Marie ARENA (S&amp;D, BE),&nbsp;Catherine BEARDER (ALDE, UK) and&nbsp;Jordi SEBASTI&Agrave; (Greens/EFA, ES).

debate

plenary session

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

BEARDER, Catherine (Renew, UK)

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Iratxe (S&D, ES)

ARENA, Maria (S&D, BE)

violence against women (T)

female genital mutilations (T)

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

Zero tolerance for female genital mutilation: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARC&#205;A P&#201;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), "Around 140 Million women across the world currently suffer the effects of this practise."

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARC&#205;A P&#201;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), "We adopted a resolution to intensify efforts to eliminate female genital mutilation, in this resolution, states are asked to develop and support and to comply with strategies to erase this practise, this includes training of medical staff, social workers and religious and community leaders to ensure that they provide support services to women and girls who are at risk of suffering FGM."

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, "Together with the European institute for gender equality, we will develop a common methodology and indicators to estimate the risk of female genital mutilation in all EU Member States."

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, "In order to bring about the social change necessary for families to abandon this tradition legal action alone is not enough, this is why the Commission is supporting and will continue to support work at grass route level, engaging communities that practise FGM, both in the EU and abroad."

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Member of the EC in charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, "How are we protecting victims, the victims right directive should be transposed in November 2015. This directive ensures for victims of FGM easy access to well-functioning specialised support services and protects them against any threat of physical or emotional harm during criminal investigations and trial."

SOUNDBITE (French), Marie ARENA (S&amp;D, BE), "We don't have a specific time table, so we have this list on the table, but what is the situation with a specific clear time table, what is the situation with the objectives, you said yourself it is difficult to collect data, it is difficult to show that Member states have set up effective procedures, how do you assess if the procedures are effective or not?"

SOUNDBITE (English), Catherine BEARDER (ALDE, UK), "We have to provide training for teachers, doctors, police men and other key professionals now, so they can recognize the warnings signs and they will know what to do when presented to the evidence. Training takes only a few days, but it could help prevent vulnerable girls from being forced to live with the consequences of FGM for the rest of their lives."

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Jordi SEBASTI&#192; (Greens/EFA, ES), "Many of the women who suffer FGM see it as an inevitable custom and they don't even know that it is a crime. Many other can't go to Courts, because of the pressure of their families. We need to empower women so that they denounce what is going on, we need to work on educational programmes and integration programmes, because as the Unicef says poverty and marginalisation are the keys for this practise to continue in Europe. We need powerful awareness raising campaigns, responsible immigration and integration policies and responsible asylum policies, we need a holistic approach which Parliament has already called for and which we are now repeating."