The European parliament has called on the EU to draw up a standardised consent-based definition of rape, in what legislators described as a crucial step towards addressing the patchwork of laws, some of them insufficient, that now exist across the bloc.
On Tuesday, 447 of the parliament’s 720 MEPs voted to approve a report calling for a common definition of rape, centred on “only yes means yes”, prompting a loud round of applause in the chamber in Strasbourg.
“Silence, lack of resistance, the absence of a ‘no’, previous consent, past sexual conduct or any current or previous relationship must not be interpreted as consent,” the parliament said in a statement following the vote.
A common definition would force member states that continue to include force or violence in their laws to align with international standards, said Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, a Polish MEP who was one of the main drivers of the initiative.
“We can’t have the meaning of rape change as we cross from one border to another,” she said.
“We can’t have a situation where a rapist who has raped a woman in Germany can go to Hungary and isn’t prosecuted because the law is different. And that’s what this report is about.”
In recent years, the majority of EU member states have adopted consent-based definitions of rape in their criminal codes. However, eight countries, ranging from Italy to Hungary and Romania, remain outliers, still requiring victims to prove to some extent that they verbally resisted, were forced or physically fought back.
Tuesday’s vote showed that there is a “huge majority” in favour of consent-based rape legislation in the EU, said Evin Incir, a Swedish MEP who was one of the main campaigners in the lead-up to the vote. “Now the [European] Commission must take responsibility and promptly put forward a proposal.”
Whether the commission would do so remains to be seen; in 2023 several governments across the EU joined to block efforts to create a common definition of rape, arguing that it was an overstep of the EU’s remit.
Speaking to reporters after the vote, Scheuring-Wielgus and Incir, both from the parliament’s Socialists and Democrats group, defended the need to again try to reach a consensus among the 27-member bloc.
“Look, we often hear the question, ‘Why are we doing this? It didn’t work before,’” said Scheuring-Wielgus. “But times have changed.”
The issue of consent had burst into public view in 2024, said Scheuring-Wielgus. “The case of Gisèle Pelicot has shaken the whole world,” she said, referring to the French woman who became a global figurehead as she sought justice after it emerged that her husband had long been drugging her and inviting men to rape her while she was unconscious.
Pelicot’s case had laid bare the shortcomings of defining rape solely on force or resisting, rather than consent, said Scheuring-Wielgus. “Her courage to speak out has opened the eyes of even the most conservative opponents of this change.”
The French government later changed its sexual assault laws to include consent, a shift echoed in recent years in Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, said Incir.
A report published in 2014, based on interviews with 42,000 women across the EU, found that one in 10 women have experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15, and one in 20 have been raped.
Few of these victims ever receive justice, said Incir. “Unfortunately when we look at the figures, only 0.5% of rapes in Europe lead to conviction.”
While the European Commission said on Tuesday that it “welcomes” the move by lawmakers, Scheuring-Wielgus said she had the impression there was “no belief” that this was something that could be pushed through by the commission.
She vowed, however, that she and others would continue to demand action.
“If you look around the world, you can see that the EU is now the only place where we’re still fighting for women’s rights,” she said, pointing to the rollback of rights in the US and the Middle East.
“Europe and the EU can be a place where we fight robustly for women’s rights. And we are – and can be – an example for others.”
