European Parliament’s Committee for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) has adopted the Resolution of the Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan on Women`s Rights in the Western Balkans. The Resolution was adopted with a tight majority of votes and is the first document of its kind in five years whereby the European Parliament is giving recommendations on increasing the rights of women in the region.
The author of the Resolution, the Croatian representative Biljana Borzan, who formulated the document in close cooperation with a number of Non-Governmental Organizations and who spent years advocating for its adoption, believes that this document directs Europe`s attention to the women in the Western Balkans and ensured their increased protection against violence.
“My main focus was the violence against women. Unfortunately, violence is a burning issue in the region. We are faced with lack of shelters, unqualified staff, slow work of the judiciary and, the worse part, non-reporting of the cases of violence”, Borzan said.
In her Resolution, Borzan also addressed the inferior position of women in the labor market. She believes that women are constantly degraded in the labor market compared to their male colleagues, regardless of their often higher academic achievements.
The Resolution should serve as a message to the Western Balkan countries which aspire to EU membership that the situation with the women-victims of violence in the region is appalling and unacceptable and must be changed.
The resolution text contains concrete recommendations for all countries who have the ambition to become EU members. Specifically, Point 31 which refers to Macedonia, underlines the importance of increased nvolvment of women and women`s organizations in the pre-accession process.
The draft motion of the Resolution is available on the following link:
