EU to propose law on violence against women

STRASBOURG (HRNW) – The European Commission is to propose a law to fight violence against women before the end of the year after a rise in cases during the Covid-19 pandemic, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.

“Women must be able to live freely and self-determinedly again,” she told the European Parliament in her annual State of the European Union address in Strasbourg.

“During the pandemic, too many women were deprived of this freedom” to express themselves, live their identity and to “love who you want,” she said.

Restrictions imposed during the pandemic, which in EU countries included lockdowns, quarantines and social “bubbles” as authorities tried to curb the spread of the coronavirus, exacerbated violence against women, according to initial though incomplete statistics across the bloc.