The European Parliament is once again pushing to extend the only yes means yes law to the entire EU. That is, to require Member States to define rape based on the absence of explicit consent and not on the use of force, following the Istanbul Convention. The plenary of the European Parliament voted this Tuesday on a report in favor of including consent in the directive on gender-based violence in community legislation, something it already tried to do during the previous legislature, but which was left pending due to the refusal of some Member States, led by France and Germany, who argued the EU’s lack of competence to regulate such a matter at a European level.
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Amid applause from the chamber, the proposal was approved with 447 votes in favor, 160 against, and 43 abstentions, with the favorable votes of the PP, but with the rejection of Vox and other far-right groups. It intends to pressure Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission to include the concept of “free, informed, and revocable” consent in the planned revision of the directive on gender-based violence, ultimately leading Member States that still define rape based on the use of force or violence to adapt their laws to international standards.
“In too many Member States, the law offers greater protection to a wallet, or a phone than to a woman’s body,” laments one of the promoters
The European Parliament’s green light follows the resolution recently approved in the European Parliament’s Committees on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and Civil Liberties, which called on the Commission for legislation to define rape at a European level where it is clear that “silence, lack of verbal or physical resistance, or the absence of a ‘no’ cannot be interpreted as consent,” nor can “prior consent, past sexual conduct, or any past or present relationship with the aggressor.” “Only a clear, affirmative, free, and unequivocal indication of consent is valid,” emphasized the text, negotiated by all political groups, which also received the endorsement of the popular parties.
“It is 2026, and yet, in too many Member States, the law offers greater and clearer protection to objects such as a wallet, a phone, or real estate than to a woman’s body,” lamented Swedish Social Democrat MEP Evin Incir, one of the report’s rapporteurs, during the parliamentary debate prior to the vote. Despite the Council’s refusal, Incir recalls that more and more governments recognize the need for this approach: since 2023, France, Finland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands have introduced consent-based laws.
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The European Parliament already tried to change this decision in the previous legislature, but it ran into the wall of the EU Council, which represents the Member States. Specifically, the refusal of the Franco-German axis. France and Germany already recognize consent in their national legislation, but they argued that the EU does not have clear competencies to legislate to define crimes such as rape because criminal law remains a matter primarily for the Member States and they thought it could be appealed before the Court of Justice of the EU.
This new attempt by the European Parliament comes despite the current configuration of the European Parliament being one of the most right-leaning in history, and despite the strong opposition of the popular parties to the Spanish ‘only yes means yes’ law. The Spanish PP has voted in favor of legislating “with technical and legal clarity” the definition of the crime of rape in the EU, as explained by the chairman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), Javier Zarzalejos, who criticized the Spanish law. “The technical and legal drafting on the definition of this crime must be considered with the necessary rigor,” insisted the popular MEP, criticizing that in Spain “we have the tragic experience of a bad regulation of rape and sexual assault, which had to be rectified, but which meant the early release of more than a thousand rapists and sexual aggressors.”
Now, the ball is in the European Commission’s court, which, according to the Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, Hadja Lahbib, considers this an “absolute priority.” Lahbib has committed to supporting national reforms to establish definitions of rape based on the concept of consent and to carry out a comprehensive analysis of existing legislation across the EU to determine what additional measures, including legislative ones, should be adopted to ensure that non-consensual sexual acts are defined as rape throughout the EU. “Rest assured that we will continue to take all possible measures to achieve that recognition in Europe,” she promised the MEPs.
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