The European Parliament doesn’t rule out obligatory anti-harassment coaching for MEPs — however has left questions of larger assist for victims of bullying and abuse open-ended.
In a press release to EUobserver, it mentioned a bunch coping with gender equality and variety could sooner or later “introduce mandatory trainings on harassment prevention.”
Some 262 present MEPs have undergone voluntary coaching classes as of final December. Of these, 17 have been carried out within the earlier European Parliament mandate, it mentioned.
The general determine is probably going greater as a result of some MEPs have left, mentioned a parliament spokesperson.
However questions of what number of have accomplished the coaching however nonetheless harassed folks, resembling assistants, additionally stays unanswered.
“For privacy reasons, we cannot comment on which trainings the MEPs have taken or not, unless they decide themselves to do so,” mentioned a spokesperson.
This comes regardless of the European Parliament passing a resolution that demanded, amongst different issues, to make public an inventory of MEPs who participated in anti-harassment trainings.
Final week, Spanish socialist MEP Mónica Silvana González was penalised for bullying three former assistants, a cost she has since denied and is appealing.
European Parliament president Roberta Metsola described González ‘s conduct as “psychological harassment” after which docked her day by day allowance for 30 days [€338 per day] and quickly suspended her from parliamentary actions.
González nonetheless retains her month-to-month wage in addition to different advantages and her penalty is suspended for period of the enchantment.
The parliament’s political management, generally known as the Bureau, may have as much as 4 weeks to deliberate. If it fails to decide inside that point, then the penalty is taken into account null and void.
However each the sanction and the 16-months it took to succeed in a verdict could dissuade different victims of abuse from stepping ahead.
Comparable points have been highlighted in a 2017 report from an advisory committee dealing with complaints by assistants in opposition to MEPs. It famous that the size of time it took to succeed in a verdict decreased from one yr to 3 months.
It’s unclear if the newest 16-month process is an anomaly. When pressed, the European Parliament declined to elucidate. As an alternative, it says the parliament strives to resolve and stop conflicts at an early stage.
And it notes that since 2018, a community of confidential counsellors was arrange, which is out there to workers members who wish to ask for recommendation and steering.
But it surely additionally declined a request to reveal the newest exercise report from the identical committee coping with harassment complaints by workers.
In the meantime, the blowback is being felt among the many victims.
One of many three complainants in opposition to González voiced her frustration on the course of to Spanish media outlet El Confidencial.
“The small sanction of one month is disproportionate compared to the year, almost two, of my life in which I was destroyed professionally and personally and also damaged my health,” she mentioned.
El Confidencial says the assistant had arrived in the summertime of 2020 with a one-year contract.
The paper, which has had entry to an inside report of the case, says the assistant was given work that didn’t correspond to her profile or skilled duties.
This included babysitting González’s daughter and coping with electrical energy payments, says the paper.
Sanctions in opposition to offending MEPs are additionally a rarity.
Luxembourg liberal MEP Monica Semedo had her day by day allowance docked for 15 days in January 2021, following harassment complaints from her accredited assistants.
The European Parliament had additionally accused Maria João Rodrigues, a Portuguese socialist, of psychological harassment in opposition to her parliamentary assistant in April 2019.
Rodrigues was given a reprimand.
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