The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (also known as the Istanbul Convention) entered into force in the EU on Sunday 1 October after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) agreed with the European Commission’s request that accession The EU as a bloc no longer needs a unanimous vote of its member states for this convention, although seven member states oppose this convention because they believe it promotes gender ideology, reports Agerpres.

What does the accession of the EU as a bloc to the Istanbul Convention entail

The accession of the EU as a block to the Istanbul Convention will allow the application of a global and coordinated policy at the community level, and the member states will have to apply mandatory rules to combat gender-based violence, reports the EFE agency.

Adopted by the Council of Europe in 2011, the convention includes, among other things, measures and obligations ranging from public information to legal actions that criminalize certain forms of violence.

Based on this convention, last year the European Commission presented a draft directive, with which it aims to unify the definition of the crime of rape in all 27 EU member states, in the sense that any sexual act without consent is considered rape, without the need to prove a threat or use forces, as Spain did, and Sweden before it.

The latter in 2018, influenced by the #MeToo movement, passed a law requiring explicit consent for sexual intercourse, a law that has led to an increase in criminal convictions for rape.

Which EU countries have not joined the Istanbul Convention

Six Central and Eastern European EU member states have not joined the convention, namely Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania, while Poland, which signed it under the previous liberal government, wants to withdraw from it under the current conservative government.

These countries have refused to ratify the document because they believe that, in addition to the declared goal of combating violence against women, this convention encourages marriage between homosexuals and acceptance of a third gender. According to Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, this convention is a “feminist creation designed to justify gay ideology.”

However, the convention will have limited application in the EU to areas in which the community block has exclusive competence, in this case judicial cooperation in criminal cases and asylum policy for migrants, so member states that have not joined it separately will be exempted from some obligations contained in the document, but will be required to make legislative changes imposed by the accession of the EU as a block to the convention.

The accession comes six years after it was proposed by the European Commission in 2016 and after persistent requests by the European Parliament to adopt it at community level, moves that were opposed by six member states that rejected it.

To neutralize this opposition, the European Commission turned to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), which decided in October 2022 that the mentioned convention can be adopted at the EU level without the need for unanimity in the EU Council, which unites the member states.

“Every third woman has experienced physical or sexual violence in the last 15 years. Many do not report this. Many aggressors remain unpunished. We must act, and the Istanbul Convention is our legal tool to strengthen women’s rights,” he said on Friday. This is stated in the press release of Vira Yurova, Vice President of the European Commission for Values ​​and Transparency.