Brussels ( Brussels Morning) – EU Parliament introduces anti-harassment measures despite opposition. Mandatory training and sanctions aim to foster accountability and prevent workplace misconduct.
The European Parliament has assumed new changes to its regulations of procedure to prevent harassment and encourage good office management — despite some resistance from both centre-right and far-right MEPs. “The European People’s Party in respective resorted to stalling tactics, prolonging negotiations in committee and throwing doubt on the need to modify the rules of procedure,” stated lead MEP Gaby Bischoff.
With 15 votes in acceptance, nine against and no abstentions, MEPs arranged to introduce substantial sanctions for MEPs who fail to satisfy mandatory anti-harassment training within the first six months of their appointment. In short, completion of the training will be a condition for holding office or serving as rapporteur in the next mandate. “As a public establishment as well as an employer, the European Parliament must establish the gold standard in preventing harassment in the workplace,” stressed Bischoff.
The training consists of five separate modules, ranging from successful team leadership to harassment prevention. During this directive, 317 current MEPs have carried part in such a course, which the parliament reached in a resolution on “MeToo and harassment” in December 2021, according to the institution’s press service. “Clear rules and firm sanctions must be in place to sustain a zero-tolerance approach towards unacceptable behaviour,” the German socialist said.
Under the latest rules, which still need to be supported at plenary in April, the parliament’s political group chiefs will have the power to suggest the removal of any elected office-holder who fails to concede with the training. “The training is never a promise that harassment will not happen later on, but it could provide some people some perspective and comprehend that there are specific lines,” a volunteer with the campaign group MeTooEP told Media.
It’s also an inquiry of accountability, so if the MEP goes through the exercise they can’t say they didn’t know they were disturbing their staff, that would no longer be a justification. “It also puts the obligation on the members, not only for their behaviour but also to guarantee that they are aware that they are leaders and that they also need to maintain an eye on the wellbeing of all these systems in their office,” the volunteer with MeTooEP discussed.
To date, there is no data collection or examination of harassment by the parliament, but a recent survey by the MeToo group indicates that harassment is far from eliminated in the EU institution.
Out of 1136 responses, almost half of the respondents underwent psychological violence and/or harassment — close to 16 per cent conveyed experiencing sexual harassment or violence. Workers who undergo any kind of harassment in the EU club can ask the parliament to rescue them, for example by driving them elsewhere while their objection is investigated — but the formal internal anti-harassment approach is still long and not transparent enough, they explain.
One of the group’s main directions is an external and independent audit to enhance the whole anti-harassment system. “It is already in the regulations that if you have been found culpable of harassment by the President, it should be prominently depicted on the parliament’s website. Yet it is not publicised anywhere,” the MeTooEP people stated.
There are currently some lasting investigations into alleged wrongdoing by some MEPs, but only three MEPs have been found culpable of harassment during this term — liberal MEPs Monica Semedo and José Ramón Bauzá, and Spanish socialist Mónica Silvana. According to the MeToo survey, the anti-harassment approach is still not widely understood among Parliament staff and many respondents did not officially convey abuse because of the power imbalance, worry of repercussions or the opaque reporting procedure.
Almost half of the respondents stated they had heard of it but were not certain what it was, around 31 per cent said they understood quite a bit and almost 13 per cent expressed they did not know it existed. “Quite a few things have altered, but in our opinion not enough,” stated the campaign group MeTooEP. “There are still quite an occasional things that, according to the data, are not moving as they should.”
