00:00Now, moving on, EU lawmakers are gathering in Strasbourg this week with a raft of issues on their agenda.
00:05For more, we can cross over now to the European Parliament in Strasbourg
00:09and to our correspondent, Vincenzo Genovese, who's there for us.
00:13Good morning, Vincenzo. Great to see you.
00:15Give us a sense. What can we expect from the Parliament today?
00:21Good morning, Maret. Good morning from Strasbourg.
00:23The European Parliament is voting today at noon on a report about rape legislation in the EU.
00:30The resolution calls on the European Commission to establish a common definition of rape,
00:34which is valid, which should be valid across all the 27 member states,
00:38and essentially says that any form of sex without consent should be considered as rape,
00:45which is not the case today all across the EU.
00:48So why is this important? I'll put that question to Abir al-Salani, a Swedish MP, who has worked on
00:54the file.
00:55Good morning and welcome. What's the key point of this vote?
00:58Well, it comes as a result of a failure from the previous mandate when we discussed the gender-based violence
01:06directive
01:07and where we fail actually in delivering this kind of legislation to women.
01:13And it comes with a very important timing, not only because of the backlash on gender equality issues globally,
01:23but also specifically in Europe, but also because of all these scandals that have been surrounding this topic,
01:29from the case of Madame Pellicot in France to the rape, so-called rape academy,
01:36where you drug women, where the partners drug women, they raped them and they streamed it online.
01:42So the violence has evolved against women. Sexual violence in Europe has evolved.
01:47Because nowadays the definition of rape is, in some member states, is linked to violence.
01:54Exactly. And many of these, let me just focus a little bit on the member states,
01:59where they actually were the ones pressuring us, the previous mandate, not to go through with the consent-based legislation.
02:05And finally they are waking up and now it is actually on them to also push the commission
02:11so we can have this legislative proposal. Because when you do this, when you do not choose the side of
02:19women and the victims,
02:21then you are choosing actually the side of the rapist. You are already chosen a side. You are not neutral.
02:26What about the parliament? All the political groups agree on this resolution?
02:31Because I see that some criticism from the far-right parties.
02:34Well, unfortunately not. Can you imagine in 2026, when they are saying, this far-right party, the Patriots and the
02:44ESN,
02:45they are still saying that, are women properly dressed? Was she too drunk?
02:52What did she do to provoke a rape? Still they are blaming the woman, the victim, for the rape.
02:59And I think that they should be utterly ashamed when they cannot, even in this very volatile situation,
03:07they cannot choose the side of the victim.
03:09Let's turn to another topic because tomorrow there is a key debate on the Middle East crisis.
03:13What should be done on this crisis?
03:15Well, it's not a crisis. It's a war ongoing where actual people, real people, humans like you and me are
03:22dying.
03:22And they are paying a price for us watching the global order being renegotiated in real time.
03:31And what we should have done is we should have been much more clear, much more early in our reactions.
03:38We should have brought the Iranian opposition to facilitate their democratic shift.
03:43But killing people and calling it a war for democracy, that is just ugly.
03:48But are you in favour of direct involvement of the European countries, as suggested by President Trump?
03:53Never, never in a war that is a crime against international law.
03:58We are better than that. Europeans, EU, we are better than this.
04:02If we don't protect the international law, then nobody will.
04:06Okay. Thank you very much.
04:08And we will cover, we will follow, of course, this debate and all the votes here in the European Parliament
04:14in Strasbourg
04:15on Euronews and Euronews.com.
04:17Maren.
04:19Okay, Vincenzo, thank you so much.
04:20And thank you to your guest there, MEP, Abir al-Salani.
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