Considerations on COM(2024)525 - EU position at the 17th meeting of the Committee of the Parties of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence on the adoption of a decision on the procedure for issuing recommendations to Parties in the first thematic evaluation round, with regard to matters related to institutions and public administration of the Union - Main contents
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dossier | COM(2024)525 - EU position at the 17th meeting of the Committee of the Parties of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and ... |
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document | COM(2024)525 ![]() |
date | December 12, 2024 |
(2) | Pursuant to Article 66(1) of the Convention, the Group of experts on action against violence against women and domestic violence (‘GREVIO’) is to monitor the implementation of the Convention by the Parties. Pursuant to Article 68(3) of the Convention, the evaluation proceduressubsequent to GREVIO’s initial baseline evaluation procedure, concerning the reports on legislative and other measures giving effect to the provisions of this Convention submitted by the Parties are to be divided into rounds (‘thematic evaluation rounds’). Pursuant to Article 68(11) of the Convention, GREVIO is to adopt its report and conclusions concerning the measures taken by the Party concerned. Pursuant to Article 68(12) of the Convention, on the basis of the report and conclusions of GREVIO, the Committee of the Parties established by Article 67 of the Convention (‘the CoP’) is able to adopt recommendations addressed to the Party concerned. |
(3) | The first of thematic evaluation rounds, entitled ‘Building trust by delivering support, protection and justice’, was launched in 2022 and will run from 2023 to 2031. It addresses 19 specific provisions of the Convention, namely Articles 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 25, 31, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 and 56, and concerns the implementation of provisions of the Convention which also apply to the Union with regard to its own institutions and public administration. |
(4) | In September 2024, the Secretariat of the CoP shared with the Parties draft decision IC-CP(2024)10 on recommendations to be adopted in light of GREVIO’s reports adopted as part of the first thematic evaluation round (‘the draft decision’). The draft decision provides for a procedure for the adoption of, and the supervision of the implementation of, recommendations by the CoP and contains a model recommendation. The draft decision is to be discussed and, if possible, adopted at the 17th meeting of the Committee of the Parties on 17 December 2024. |
(5) | The Union has exclusive competence to accept obligations set out in the Convention with regard to its own institutions and public administration, within the scope of Article 336 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In its Opinion 1/19 (3), the Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed that a significant part of the obligations of the Convention relating to the adoption of preventive and protection measures are, in essence, binding on the Union as regards the staff in its administration and as regards the members of the public visiting the premises and buildings of its institutions, agencies and bodies. |
(6) | It is appropriate to establish the position to be taken on the Union’s behalf within the CoP as the draft decision establishes the procedure for the adoption of, and the supervision of, the implementation of recommendations addressed to Parties with regard to matters related to institutions and public administration of the Union. Those recommendations will be capable of decisively influencing the content of Union law in that they may affect the interpretation of relevant provisions of the Convention in the future. |
(7) | The draft decision provides that the recommendations are to be limited to the most pressing concerns identified by GREVIO in its reports. Those concerns include shortcomings that GREVIO considers require immediate action, indicated by the use of the verb ‘urges’, as well as those issues that GREVIO considers should be remedied in the near future, indicated by the verb ‘strongly encourages’, covering all chapters of the Convention. |
(8) | The draft decision provides that the CoP is to supervise the implementation of the recommendations by requesting the Party concerned to submit a written report on the measures taken within 3 years of the adoption of the recommendation. Pursuant to the draft decision, the CoP is thereafter able to choose not to take any further steps in its supervision in order to avoid overlap with any future thematic evaluation rounds. |
(9) | The draft decision provides that the recommendations are to recommend the Party to implement the remaining, less urgent proposals from GREVIO, as a way of endorsing GREVIO’s conclusions in their entirety, and to invite that Party to a continued dialogue with GREVIO. |
(10) | The Union should agree with the draft decision, as the procedure set out therein aligns with the baseline evaluation procedure under Article 68 of the Convention, which has been effective and ensures effective implementation of all provisions selected for the thematic evaluation, while avoiding overlapping monitoring processes. |
(11) | The position of the Union within the CoP should therefore be to support the adoption of the draft decision, including the proposed model recommendation set out in Appendix I thereto. |
(12) | In order to allow for the necessary flexibility during the meeting of the CoP, it should be provided that specific changes to the draft decision can be agreed on behalf of the Union without a further decision of the Council, |