MEPs denounce EU Parliament’s lack of protection for harassment victims

The European Parliament’s women’s rights committee found the Parliament’s internal procedures for dealing with cases of psychological and physical harassment to be inadequate, in a draft resolution adopted on Tuesday (25 April).

The resolution argued that harassment is still under-reported, attributing this to victims’ fear of retaliation and a “general distrust in how harassment cases are handled due to the lack of a comprehensive system of reporting, support and care for the victims”.

Five MEPs have been penalised for harassment since 2016, an official source from the European Parliament confirmed to EURACTIV. The parliament’s current internal procedures to deal with harassment have been in place since 2018.

Only 36.9% of members (260 out of 705) attended anti-harassment training, the resolution stated.

As the training is currently not mandatory, the committee’s MEPs proposed to make the training mandatory for all members, as well as publishing a list of those who have completed it.

The resolution denounced the lack of awareness of reporting procedures and available support for the victims, as well as proposing to introduce a “network of confidential counsellors and external mediators to provide guidance and support to victims, with cooperation between confidential counsellors in different EU bodies”.

The current procedures

The European Parliament created an advisory committee to deal with “all potential cases of harassment involving MEPs with all kinds of staff”, an official source from the Parliament told EURACTIV.

Before the advisory committee begins an investigation, the harassment case is submitted to the personnel services that conducts a preliminary study to find ‘prima facie’ evidence of harassment.

The next step is for personnel and legal services to confer on a decision, before an investigation by the advisory committee is launched.

In the meantime, victims have the right to work remotely, from another office or to be on a leave of absence ex officio, with legal and medical support.

When the investigation concludes, the advisory committee submits a confidential report to the president, who must decide within six weeks on the penalty to be imposed.

Timing and privacy

The resolution denounced that these procedures can take years, “causing unnecessary harm to the victims”. The committee’s MEPs called for the advisory committee to make a decision within six months, adding that they “should continuously inform all parties involved in the procedure”.

When asked by EURACTIV about two cases leaked to German and Greek media, about the MEPs Karolin Braunsberger-Reinhold and Alexis Georgoulis respectively, the European Parliament declined to answer.

“I am afraid that due to the confidentiality of the work of the Advisory Committee, we cannot comment whether a procedure has been launched or not. In case of sanctions, they are announced publicly in Plenary,” an official source told EURACTIV.

Whilst an investigation is ongoing, neither the victims nor the accused can discuss the cases externally.

Next steps

The text will be voted on during the next plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in May.

However, the resolution is a non-legislative text – it merely states the position of MEPs on specific issues, and its recommendations are not binding.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]