Galway Bay FM Newsroom - Midlands-North-West MEP Maria Walsh has this week called for the European commission to establish gender-based violence as a Eurocrime, which would make gender-based crimes illegal in all EU countries.
MEP Walsh had a central role in establishing the Parliament recommendations to the Commission on what to include in their future actions on combating gender-based violence.
A survey completed in 2014 by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found that approximately 50 women lose their lives to domestic violence every week.
A Women's Aid report published earlier this year saw that 29,717 people contacted the domestic violence support service in 2020, an increase of 43% compared to 2019. 95% of those who contacted the 24-hour national helpline were women, 5% were men.
Speaking to Galway Bay FM News this afternoon, MEP Walsh said that while the vote does not immediately mean that Gender Based violence is a Eurocrime, it is an important start to the process:
