EU, lack of unified direction and social costs remain high

At the end of October, the Latvian Parliament voted in favour of the country's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, the international treaty on preventing and combating violence against women. In response to the vote, thousands of citizens took to the streets in Riga. And a large group of MPs from neighbouring Estonia, formally criticising the initiative, signed a declaration reaffirming their commitment to preventing and combating all forms of violence and their support for the measures set out in the Convention. Although the proposal was postponed by Latvian President Rinkēvičs until after the 2026 elections, this news underlines a European situation that is not yet unified on the issue. In fact, despite the fact that in 2024 the Gender Violence Directive, which obliges member states to update their laws on the subject, came into force, the 27 are moving in no particular order.

On the one hand, abuses such as female genital mutilation or forced marriages are criminalised in almost all EU countries, but the legal treatment of psychological, sexual or domestic violence is not shared. According to data from the European Parliament's research service, only fifteen states prosecute these forms of aggression. Furthermore, to date, only Cyprus and Malta from 2022, Croatia from 2024 and Italy from this year, have a legal definition of feminicide.

However, there are signs of progress: in Belgium there has been a specific law to prevent and combat gender-based violence since 2023. In Spain, France and Portugal, in murder cases, reasons related to the victim's gender are considered aggravating circumstances. Madrid also stands out for being the first in the EU to introduce specialised courts to deal with cases of aggression against women.

Another interesting example is Germany, where in February the right to free protection and counselling for those suffering aggression was introduced at federal level for the first time.

Regardless of the levels reached by individual states, the advancement of the fight against gender-based violence is urgent especially when looking at the worrying numbers of cases and victims. According to the largest continental survey published at the end of 2024 by Eige (European Institute for Gender Equality), one in three women has suffered physical or sexual attacks in her lifetime. One in eight at the hands of an acquaintance who was not a partner. And one in five by a partner, cohabitee or other family member. Despite this incidence, only slightly more than one in eight victims report the assault they have suffered to the authorities.