The Left in the European Parliament welcomes the very important decision of the Parliament’s Bureau to significantly enhance its anti-harassment policy. The European Parliament’s Bureau decided to create a new mediation service to support Members and staff in an effort to prevent and resolve harassment-related situations and agreed to have mandatory training for MEPs for a well-functioning team, including on anti-harassment. Furthermore, the European Parliament’s Bureau decided to review the rules related to the membership and functioning of the Advisory Committee dealing with harassment complaints concerning Members.

For this long-awaited decision, the role of the MeToo movement, as well as the work of Quaestors and of the High Level Group for Equality and Diversity was crucial.

This decision is a starting point to further discuss additional measures in the future to enforce zero-tolerance against harassment within the Parliament. The recent letter signed by eight Vice Presidents to President Metsola is a good basis for this discussion.

Vice-President Dimitrios Papadimoulis underlined the need this decision to be properly and timely implemented and to be further enhanced in the coming period, enforcing prevention and trust and ensuring effectiveness of the new measures, making the Parliament the frontrunner institution on anti-harassment policy.