European Commission staff lodging one complaint of sexual harassment every month
Debate on sexual harassment follows two employees accusing the European Parliament of covering up rape claims
EUROPEAN Commission staff lodge at least one sexual harassment complaint against their colleagues every month - but less than a third of the complaints result in disciplinary sanctions.
Brussels insiders said there were 65 complaints since 2012 - but only 20 led to “disciplinary sanctions for inappropriate behaviour” according to the Daily Telegraph.
But the true scale of sexual harassment cases is likely to be much higher because of unreported incidents.
The shocking revelation came as MEPs are set to vote through new rules today to protect their staff from sexual violence.
They held an urgent debate on sexual harassment after two employees accused the European Parliament of covering up rape claims they made. One said she was “actively discouraged from going to the police”.
Two other female parliamentary staff lodged complaints over sexual violence by senior colleagues.
MEPs are expected to approve a raft of new resolutions to committing the European Parliament to introduce new, formal mechanisms for victims of sexual harassment to file complaints.
Yesterday scores of female MEPs shared their own experiences of sexual harassment in an emergency debate in Brussels. But despite men making up two thirds of the 751 MEPs, only five of the 40 speakers in yesterday’s debate were male.
Female German MEP Terry Reintke said men must play an active role in tackling sexual harassment - and called for a separate EU directive with “specific measures” to fight the problem.
She said: “Me too, I have been sexually harassed, just like millions of other women in the European Union, and I think it’s about time that we say that we should not be ashamed, but that the perpetrators should be ashamed.
“Sexual harassment is such a widespread problem all over the EU and we will need legislative steps in order to combat this problem.”
Labour MEP Mary Honeyball told The Sun: “I was shocked to learn of the nature of these complaints made by women working within European Institutions in both the nature and scale.
However, The European Parliament has reacted swiftly to acknowledge that there is a problem and has put safeguarding measures in place to protect these and other women who may yet come forward. The resolution has specific protection for whistle blowers for example to ensure that they are able to report ANY wrong doing. I am satisfied that we have taken appropriate measures and acted responsibly and swiftly.”
The European Commission said it had “zero tolerance for any form of harassment”.
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