Battered women and other victims of violence will be afforded greater EU-wide protection under European Commission proposals voted through by euro-deputies in Strasbourg on Wednesday (22 May). “We want to make sure that ...

EU companies will be required to publish information ranging from anti-corruption and bribery measures to their boardroom policies and employment practices, under new legislation unveiled by the European Commission on ...

The economic crisis is leading to a rise in the number of people being trafficked for sex, hard labour or organ donation, the EU commission said Monday (15 April,) but the vast majority of member states have failed to ...

Most national parliaments in EU countries say the European Commission should go ahead with a law on female quotas on corporate boards. But six disagree. Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told press in Brussels on ...

The European Commission wants a quota imposed on the supervisory boards of large companies in an effort to improve gender equality. “Today we are proposing a legislation to smash the glass ceiling that keeps talented ...

Member states should take decisions by majority voting, including in sensitive areas like taxation, instead of having a veto right capable of blocking attempts to harmonise rules across the EU, justice commissioner ...

The European Parliament on Thursday (25 October) called on ministers to withdraw Yves Mersch's nomination for the European Central Bank's (ECB) executive board, insisting that a female candidate should be considered for ...

Disagreement among top officials and legal worries have come close to killing a high-profile EU gender quota law. The latest version of the bill - drafted by justice commissioner Vivianne Reding - is to force publicly- ...

MEPs in the economic and monetary affairs committee accused eurozone finance ministers of "gender bias" on Monday (22 October) in a vote against the nomination of Yves Mersch to the board of the European Central Bank ( ...

EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has said she is up for an "interesting fight" within the commission itself and with nine member states opposing draft legislation on gender quotas for top jobs in companies. The ...

The EU commissioner for justice and home affairs, Viviane Reding, will table a proposal in October or November that would fine or sanction state-owned companies whose supervisory boards are composed of less than 40 ...

The European Commission on Friday (15 June) was accused of censorship for omitting from a report on men's health issues such as homosexuality, condom use, divorce and suicide. The commission, for its part, denies any ...

Mainstream society in Europe is slowly coming to understand sexual minorities - lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. But intersex people in the EU live largely in the dark. "There is very little knowledge ...

Polish members of the European Parliament are - by far - the least gay-friendly in the house, followed by counterparts from Latvia, Lithuania and Italy. The most friendly are from Denmark, Estonia and Sweden. Looking at ...

With the summertime pride march season approaching, EUobserver looks at just how progressive European countries really are on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex (LGBTI) people.

Despite a recent surge in homophobia and differences between countries, Europe on the whole remains the most gay-friendly continent on the globe. Nowhere on the old continent - except in Tukish-controlled north Cyprus - ...

EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has said Europe is "too cowardly" to stand up to mounting homophobia. "I must say that what is going on now, in recent years, makes me quite scared. We hear ... homophobic ...

Justice ministers meeting in Luxemburg on Friday (April 27) have backed a new EU law to strengthen legal and police protection for victims of crime. The measures would help streamline judicial and legislative procedures ...

Human trafficking is booming in Europe, the Hague-based Eurojust, the EU’s crime fighting unit, said on Thursday (26 April). But the number of cases brought against traffickers is grossly disproportionate to the number ...

Foreign ministers at the general affairs council in Brussels on Tuesday (24 April) excised an anti-discrimination clause from the European Commission's cohesion policy proposal for 2014-20. The cohesion policy, ...

The European Parliament is currently discussing the EU victim’s rights directive. This directive aims to ensure that victims of crime have the same level of protection, support and access to justice in all EU countries ...

EU commission vice-president Viviane Reding wants to see more women on boards in top European companies. For this reason, she is threatening to introduce quotas and sanctions. Some say it will not work, but it has been ...

Efforts to secure a deal on private sector involvement in a debt swap and reduction for Greece will take centre stage this week as one of the last pieces of the complicated jigsaw puzzle to nail down a second bailout ...

The Danish EU rotating presidency has made a "safe Europe" one of its top priorities. But female genital cutting, which affects an estimated 500,000 women a year in Europe alone, is not on its agenda. Girls, some even ...