Non-consensual sex must be defined as as rape

Ahead of the International Day to End Violence Against Women, the EU is in the middle of intense inter-institutional negotiation to establish the first-ever EU law to combat violence against women and domestic violence.

As part of eliminating gender-based violence, the Renew Europe group today calls on national governments in the Council to include the criminalisation of non-consensual sex as rape in the legislation. Currently, in the negotiations, the Council is blocking the inclusion of sex without consent, which is one of the cornerstones of the regulation proposed by the Commission. It is needed to establish minimum rules on the offence. For our MEPs, putting consent at the centre of the definition of rape is non-negotiable, and any attempts to water down crucial legislation to keep women safe will not be accepted.

Soraya Rodríguez Ramos (Ciudadanos, Spain), the Renew Europe group's shadow rapporteur in the FEMM Committee, commented:

“After so many years of fighting for a European directive on combatting violence against women, we cannot accept an empty directive. We say no to a directive without the offence of rape, a directive that will not lead to substantial changes in Member States' legislations. A robust directive that will truly change the protection of women's lives and will cover a broad range of offences, including rape with consent at its centre, is today more necessary than ever.”

Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová (Slovakia), the Renew Europe group's shadow rapporteur in the LIBE Committee, emphasised:

“Without a harmonised definition of rape this directive would be an empty vase. We need a common approach across all Member States. A woman raped cannot be considered only “oversensitive” in one Member State, while in the same case in another Member State she would be considered a victim of a crime. We have to fight for all victims to have equal access to justice.”