Activities of Michal ŠIMEČKA related to 2022/2138(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Sexual harassment in the EU and MeToo evaluation (debate)
Sexual harassment in the EU and MeToo evaluation (debate)
Reports (1)
REPORT on sexual harassment in the EU and MeToo evaluation
Amendments (22)
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas sexual harassment is defined in EU law as “any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature occurs, with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”; whereas sexual harassment is a form of gender-based violence and an extreme form of gender-based discrimination which affects women and girls disproportionally; whereas harassment is often linked to other forms of discrimination in addition to gender-based discrimination and has to be addressed with an intersectional approach and from all its angles; whereas sexual harassment is a consequence of gender based stereotypes and sexism rooted in the unequal distribution of power between women and men; whereas it can occur in many different social settings such as at home, at the workplace, in educational system, but also in the public space;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas cyber-harassment, as a form of gender-based cyber violence, is constantly increasing as a consequence of the widespread use of the internet and social medias; whereas a recent survey shows that 13 % of women were subjected to cyber-harassment in the past five years and 8 % in the past 12 months; whereas some professions, such as politicians, journalists or female activist in human rights civil organisations are particularly victims of online violence; whereas a European Parliamentary Research Service study has recently quantified the cost of gender-based cyber violence to be between €49.0 and €89.3 billion;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas harassment is widespread but under-reported; whereas harassment in the workplaone of the reasons for underreporting of sexual harassment is a lack of awareness, sometimes based on a low understanding of the gravity of the issue, knowledge of channels for victim support, but also a fear of victimisation and job loss; whereas women victims seem more likely to share such harmful experience thasn men because of the stigma and gender stereotypes; whereas all forms of harassment in the workplace have serious consequences for the physical and psychological health and well-being of employees and therefore its prevention and treatment should be a priority for every employer in order to ensure a safe working environment;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas in October 2022 the world celebrated the 5th anniversary of the social movement Metoo, encouraging women and other victims of sexual harassment to speak up, with the aim of raising awareness about the widespread violence; whereas since that time, the movement encouraged victims worldwide to speak up in different spheres, including in politics; whereas unfortunately the European Parliament is neither a perfectly safe working place and there are cases of sexual and other harassment within our house of Democracy; whereas the European Parliament immediately condemned the sexual harassment in its first resolution of October 2017, then reinforced its position in 2019 and in 20218a; whereas the progress made in addressing the issue of sexual harassment after the MeToo movement is not sufficient and there is still a lot to be done within the European institutions and beyond; whereas the European institutions have started to adapt their internal rules and procedures in order to better identify, counter and sanction harassment; whereas the implementation of prevention mechanisms has given rise to a certain degree of reluctance resulting not only from ignorance of the phenomenon of harassment but also from the lack of clarity of the existing legal rules; _________________ 8a 2017/2897 RSP, 2019/2855(RSP), 2021/29865RSP)
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas in its previous resolutions, Parliament called for the introduction of several concrete measures introducing a zero-tolerance approach but, several years on, only some of them have been fully implemented and more needs to be done; whereas in its opinion the Legal Service of the Parliament stated that the introduction of mandatory harassment prevention training would not affect the exercise of their free and independent mandate;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the European institutions in general and the European Parliament in particular, as a legislator and employer, should set an example for all employers; whereas Members of the European Parliament, both as the directly elected representatives of EU citizens and as legislators, have a special responsibility to carry out their duties respecting the highest standards and EU law;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Reaffirms the EU’s commitment to tackling gender-based violence and welcomes the proposal for a directive on combating violence against women and girls (COM(2022)0105);
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Reiterates its call for the EU and the Member States to ratify the Istanbul Convention without delay, according to the Court’s of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Opinion of 6 October 2021. Calls on Member States to refer to the Istanbul Convention’s definition on harassment in the Article 40 in their relevant legislation accordingly; is convinced that the EU and the Member States should learn from the crises and backlashes against gender equality by adopting and implementing concrete, efficient and ambitious rules and policies on preventing and combating violence, including the psychological, physical and sexual harassment;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Strongly condemns all forms of harassment, especially sexual harassment; notes that the harassment is a widespread pervasive and harmfull phenomenom surrending in all areas of private and public life, stresses that harassment experienced in a workplace constitutes a violation of human rights and can have serious consequences for survivors’ physical and psychological health, making them feel uncomfortable and insecure at work, and in some cases preventing them from doing their work; highlights the importance of addressing cyber violence in the workplace, as it has an enormous impact on the mental health of victims;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Is convinced that the European institutions should behave as exemplary employers and establish zero-tolerance standards; believes that good working conditions and safe and respectful environment are necessary to ensure the effectivity of the work of EU institutions;
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Regrets the fact that, in spite of the progress initiated by the MeToo campaign in the European Parliament, which helped to break the silence and raise awareness of the need to implement better working conditions for all staff, cases of sexual harassment still occur in the European institutions, including Parliament; recalls that these cases cast a shadow over the functioning of our institutions and undermine the confidence of EU citizens in them;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recalls the importance of prevention, with information and awareness-raising efforts, and the promotion of zero-harassment campaigns and policies; welcomes regular harassment prevention campaigns with updates posters and brochures in order to remind the Members and the staff of their responsibility to ensure their exemplary conduct; considers that the existing campaigns should be reinforced;
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that sexual and psychological harassment cases are still under-reported because victims do not use the existing channels, demonstrating the need for further efforts with regard to the prevention of sexual harassmentall forms of harassment; notes the existence of formal and informal structures in the European Parliament to address harassment and especially sexual harassment issues providing advisory, legal and psychological assistance to victims; calls for their better promotion, reinforcement of their competencies and composition in order to ensure that all victims can report in confidence and security; welcomes initiatives of some political groups, which decided to put in place trained confidential counsellors to whom victims of harassment can report their case and receive support, advice and guidance in all confidentiality;
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Recalls the duty of all of the European institutions to put in place all necessary policies to prevent and address all forms of harassment and violence, and urges them to ensure that all of the rules in place guarantee a zero-tolerance approach to any forms of misconduct and full support for all victims; calls on the European institutions to strengthen their internal rules and policies to ensure that in cases of psychological or sexual harassment and violence, they should not only suspend the perpetrator, but also entirely remove their salary;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Believes that as the harassment cases within the EU institutions may affect the EU budget, they should be taken into account while deciding to grant or not the budgetary discharge to the concerned institution;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8 b. Encourages all EU institutions and agencies to exchange regularly their best practices of anti-harassment policies, guidelines or any new provisions on coping mechanisms and strategies, which would also promote gender equality;
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Insists that the measures to address sexual harassment are not strong enough and do not include all of the actions requested in previous resolutions; welcomes the fact that this parliamentary term is the first in which Members have been required to sign a declaration confirming their commitment to complying with the Code of Appropriate Behaviour; welcomes the signature by all Members of the Declaration on the Code of Appropriate Behavior adopted by the Bureau; is convinced by the political will of the European Parliament to tackle the sexual and other types of harassment inside and outside of the institution; calls for a further transparency on all procedures and implementation of concrete measures by different authorities at the political and administrative level;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Welcomes the harassment prevention training offered to Members, managers in Parliament’s Secretariat and staff; is convinced, however, that voluntary harassment prevention training has proven insufficient; calls for the introduction of mandatory training for all Members at the very beginning of each mandate and all staff; is concerned by a low number of Members who attended the training so far: only 260 Members out of 705 Members have completed the training which represents 36,9 % of all members. Therefore calls for further actions in order to secure that Members complete the harassment prevention training and the publication of the participants' list on the website of the European Parliament;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Notes the work of the Advisory Committee on Harassment and its prevention at the workplace and the Advisory Committee dealing with harassment complaints concerning Members of the European Parliament; calls for full transparency about how Parliament is addressing issues of harassment, while protecting the identity of those affected, and invites both committees to draft and publish their monitoring reports and risk assessments annually on the European Parliament website; calls for an independent evaluation of the measures in place by exand their effectiveness by both internal and external auditors selected in a transparent procedure;
Amendment 223 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. AskRecalls for the composition of the advisory committees to be updated to ensure an equal representation of external, independent experts with proven expertise in tackling harassment issues in the workplace, including doctors, therapists and legal experts in the domain of harassment and to change their status to full members with voting rights as set up in the 2021 Resolution; calls for the creation of a confidential register of cases over time, as already requested in the resolutions dating from 2017 and 2021;