Of the almost 500 million people living in the EU, about half are women. And according to a 2014 study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, around one third of women in the EU have experienced violence at some point in their lives simply because they are women.

What we are talking about here is an epidemic of violence against women: violence in their relationships, in the family, at work, on the streets, and so on. We are talking about a form of terrorism against women which claims thousands of victims each year, with women who are killed, injured, ill-treated, humiliated, raped, assaulted, offended, insulted, threatened, and more.

Violence against women is therefore a human rights issue, i.e. violation of human rights for the simple reason of being a woman: the right to physical and mental integrity, the right to security, the right to non-discrimination, the right to privacy, etc.

It is therefore the responsibility of Member States' authorities and the EU institutions to safeguard the human rights of women: the proposal for a Directive presented by the Commission on 8 March – International Women's Day – is an essential and urgently needed first step.

The EESC applauds the regulatory innovation of a Directive on combating violence against women from an intersectional perspective. Such a Directive is much sought-after by society.

In addition, given the range and extent of the various forms of violence suffered by women, policies that aim to counter them must not be neutral but rather drawn up with a clear and unequivocal gender perspective, presented in such a way as to make it easier to understand their importance and effectiveness.

There is a need for a debate on violence against women in the EU, to design mechanisms to define prosecutable behaviour such as violence and to establish penalties and their aggravating circumstances. However, it is also necessary to put in place procedures to protect victims and ensure safe and secure access to judicial proceedings, as well as providing support and integration mechanisms for victims.

The EESC suggests that specific measures should be included as part of social dialogue and collective bargaining to ensure that victims of violence against women can retain their jobs and to ensure the integration of unemployed victims into the labour market.

At the same time, we all know that social problems cannot be resolved purely through the courts, that punishment should not be the only means and that multidisciplinary education and awareness-raising policies should therefore be put in place: we should use education and culture to prevent the emergence of abusers, providing education in conditions of equality and respecting diversity.

Given the part that education plays in shaping gender roles and stereotypes, its preventive role should extend across all education stages – especially in the form of comprehensive sexuality education – and the education community, civil society organisations (especially feminist associations), social partners and impacted communities should be an explicit part of institutional cooperation.

Finally, the EESC is deeply concerned that the extreme right has made it its goal to oppose proposals of equality between men and women. It is especially concerned about the systematic denial of structural violence against women, i.e. violence suffered simply for being a woman. Not only does this denial undermine equal coexistence between men and women, it also constitutes an attack on the values and principles enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union.