H.E. Ursula von der Leyen President European Commission

European Parliament, 11 May 2020

RE: RISE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DURING CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC

Honourable President,

We, undersigned members of the are sincerely worried about the dramatic increase in domestic violence cases during the lockdown caused by the coronavirus epidemics in the member states of the and beyond.

We are of the conviction that both member states and the European Commission should introduce special measures to protect effective and potential victims of domestic violence.

French Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Marlène Schiappa revealed that domestic violence across France increased by 32% in one week, in Paris alone it rose by as much as 36%. The French secretary of state rightly pointed out that addressing the situation has become more difficult, and even the emergency number to report domestic abuses has received fewer calls due to the fact that during quarantine “the victims are on lockdown with their abusers”.

Another member state, notably the Hungarian government, used the pandemic to have the Parliament adopted a resolution in an extraordinary procedure to reject the Istanbul Convention becoming legally binding in Hungary and the European Union. Deputy Prime Minister Mr Zsolt Semjén’s argued that while the government wanted to eliminate violence, the aim of the Istanbul Convention is to eliminate the families. As you can see, the attitudes of member states can be much diverse.

The rise of domestic violence, however, is a dramatic development in all of our member states. Due to the lockdown, tolerance in many families decrease, the functioning of state agencies and civil society organisations is also limited, and victims have fewer opportunities to seek for protection.

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The European Commission has always been firmly committed to combatting domestic violence. We, members of the European Parliament appreciate and highly value the activities of the European Commission in this respect. The lockdown resulted by the pandemic, however, raises the issue to a more severe level than ever before.

We request the European Commission, after having identified the severe nature of the problem, to make the necessary measures to confine domestic violence in all member states, make them ratify the Istanbul Treaty to bend every effort to protect fundamental rights of our citizens.

Yours faithfully:

Klára DOBREV Csaba MOLNÁR

Sándor RÓNAI Attila ARA-KOVÁCS

Karin KARLSBRO István UJHELYI

Marc ANGER Maria WALSH

Sylwia SPUREK Gabrielle BISCHOFF

Predrag Fred MATIĆ

Łukasz KOHUT

Marisa MATIAS José GUSMÃO

Vlad-Marius BOTOŞ Alice KUHNKE

Irène TOLLERET

Christel SCHALDEMOSE Abir AL-SAHLANI

Dragoș PÎSLARU

Milan BRGLEZ Carles PUIGDEMONT,

Antoni COMÍN I OLIVERES, Clara PONSATÍ

Izaskun BILBAO BARANDICA Dietmar KÖSTER

Isabel CARVALHAIS

Ilhan KYUCHYUK

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Maria GRAPINI Anna DONÁTH

Maria NOICHL

Cornelia ERNST

Eugenia RODRÍGUEZ PALOP Petros KOKKALIS

Ramona STRUGARIU Cindy FRANSSEN

Vera TAX Sylvie BRUNET

Rosa D'AMATO

Alessandra MORETTI Robert BIEDROŃ

Katarzyna ŁUKACIJEWSKA

Terry REINTKE

Nikos ANDROULAKIS Malin BJÖRK

Ewa KOPACZ

Maite PAGAZAURTUNDÚA

Chrysoula ZACHAROPOULOU

Heléne FRITZON

Markéta GREGOROVÁ

Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN

Francisco GUERREIRO

Carmen AVRAM Anne-Sophie PELLETIER

Manon AUBRY Tilly METZ

Christophe GRUDLER

Alex AGIUS SALIBA Frances FITZGERALD

Kim VAN SPARRENTAK

Hannah NEUMANN