The Party of European Socialists strongly supports the cross-party motion on combating sexual harassment and abuse in the EU which will be voted today in the European Parliament.  

PES president Sergei Stanishev said: ‘The PES welcomes the fact that the European Parliament will remind in the strongest possible way the EU stance for zero-tolerance towards harassment at the workplace. I commend the bravery of all women who speak out against sexual harassment and feel for all those who have ever suffered from this kind of physical and psychological torture. Speaking out, seeking help and justice is the only way to contribute to reveal the true scale of this modern-day plague and to encourage others to report other harassment cases, also in all of the European institutions. I think the #MeToo campaign already succeeded in at least one thing – letting victims know that they are far from alone’.

The PES would like to recall the good work of our colleagues at PES Women on raising awareness about all kinds of violence against women:

PES Women president Zita Gurmai said: ‘It is good to see that women and men are mobilising and speaking out around #MeToo movement, but this is not a new issue nor an issue that will disappear soon unless we act upon it. It is one of the multiple forms of violence women suffer every day. It is essential that the EU ratifies the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women as soon as possible as we have been requesting for the past year.  

This year again PES Women will hold a campaign and a street action on violence against women on 21 November 2017 in Brussels.