EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers, gathered in Brussels on 8 March, asked the Commission to design a new European Strategy for preventing and combating violence against women.

The strategy should establish a general framework of common principles and appropriate instruments by addressing the following priorities:

• Reviewing the current state of the problem of violence against women and its manifestations at the European level.
• Identifying common goals and the means to reach them. This includes the collection of comparable EU-wide information so as to support the Member States in the implementation and evaluation of measures and policies.
• In this context, the first steps will be taken towards establishing a European Observatory on Violence Against Women, building on existing institutional structures, with a view to collecting high-quality statistics to support policies.

Ministers highlighted that the Strategy should pay due attention to the special circumstances of girls, and of women in vulnerable situations and should also address the need for the coherence of policies in the internal and external actions of the EU as well as for the involvement of NGOs and other relevant actors.

The Council of Ministers called, among other measures, for:

• the promotion of the introduction of a free Europe-wide telephone number that could be used in Member States to offer information and assistance to victims;
• consideration of the possibility of standardising national legislation on combating violence against women, based on the results of an ongoing feasibility study;
• the promotion of awareness-raising, education and training campaigns to combat discriminatory cultural norms, and tackle the prevalent sexist stereotypes and social stigmatisation which legitimise and perpetuate violence against women.

Ministers further emphasised the critical role and responsibility of men in the process of eradicating violence against women, and underlined that the role of men should be taken into account, when devising strategies, action plans and other measures aimed at reducing and eradicating violence against women.

For more information, please read the Council conclusion.