The 2004 enlargement of the European Union was built on the unequivocal respect of equality and of the rule of law. To this end, gender equality laws were implemented within the integration process.
However, Eastern European countries seem unwilling to be on the same page as the rest of the EU. National conservative parties such as the Hungarian Fidesz picture women’s role in society as responsible for family and the education of children.
Two Europes are then opposed: one supporting continuity; the other brandishing tirelessly using the second article of the Treaty on European Union as a means of inspiration for a new way of living together. The contrast between tradition and modernity can be viewed as restrictive, but it depicts Europe’s moral tearing.
This gap has for that matter concrete repercussions on EU’s schedule: diplomatic disagreements, power struggles between Member states and Brussels, sanctions, unanimous votes causing governance issues, and ideological fragmentation within Europe. Women’s rights are only one part of this rift. It is one catalyst aspect among others of the tension between two poles.
During a recent visit in Italy, the Hungarian president Katalin Novak recognised Georgia Meloni’s “order of Christian values privileging families” in her government. A close relationship is then formed between Italy and Hungary & Poland’s Europe, the latter refusing to be a subordinate of Brussels’ law. This alliance intends to keep its authenticity without questioning its belonging to a European project which is still advantageous on a security and economic level.
Since the US Supreme Court’s decision in the summer of 2022 to let each state choose their regulation regarding the abortion, the subject is once again a polarizing one. Since, the French Senate adopted in its first reading a constitutional bill which guarantees the freedom of having recourse to an abortion. Nevertheless, abortion stays forbidden and punishable in Malta, Andorra and in Vatican City but also restricted in Poland, Italy, Romania, and Ireland mainly for religious reasons.
Intensification of institutional work in Europe: a consequence of abortion law in Poland
After the Polish’s constitutional court decision to restrict the right to abortion on October 22nd, 2020, relations between the European Institutions and Poland intensified. Today, the right to abortion in Poland is allowed only under three conditions: risk for the life or the health of the woman, high probability of severe and irreversible damages to the fetus or a life-threatening incurable disease, and a pregnancy resulting from a sexual assault.
A month later, on November 26th, 2020, the European Parliament adopted a resolution which “strictly condemns the ruling of the Constitutional Court” since it seriously endangers the health of Polish women. “6 women died in 2022 because they didn’t interrupt their pregnancies”, according to the Polish MEP Robert Biedron. Doctors who wish to practice are torn between women who sometimes risk their lives and prison sentences if they don’t respect one of the three conditions listed above.
In the same way, the Council of Europe, whose first role is to defend Human Rights, published a report on the right to abortion in Poland. In her report, the Commissioner for Human Rights (of the Council of Europe), Dunja Mijatović, denounces the numerous issues related to the question of inequalities of access to abortion, contraception and sexual education. The latter is directly linked to access to abortion because that is how girls are taught how to protect themselves from a non-desired pregnancy. But sexual education has been removed from school syllabi in 1999 and reintroduced in 2009 as an optional course on family life.
Beyond the issue of abortion, the overview on women’s situation in Europe reveals the division of the European Union since its enlargement. This division is notably worsened by a constant opposition between progress and tradition. Would reforming governance rules and unanimity allow to counteract fears of institutional blocking? The anchoring of division on the Union values reveals a real fundamental issue questioning the project carried by the EU when it comes to Human and Women’s rights.
By Nina Thevenet and Mona Ambert.
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