mr president i am happy that combating gender-based violence is a priority of both the european commission and the european parliament
that gives us a common goal to make real progress in the coming years
i hope this report will be considered an important contribution to the victims package that the commission has promised us and that the victims package will in turn be one of the aspects of a europe-wide comprehensive strategy that includes victim support but also other aspects of the struggle against violence
for instance we need a minimum level of assistance services
every woman should have access to shelters to free legal aid and to psychological aid
for example we need to protect migrant women who do not have an independent residence permit and are extra vulnerable
this report includes many important aspects and we as greens hope that we can vote in favour of it
but if recital j and paragraph nineteen stay in which call prostitution a violation of human rights without even distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary prostitution we will have to abstain
i hope it does not go that far and that we can have a strong and widely-supported report to offer to the commission and to the member states as our contribution
