European Judicial Cooperation and Protection of Gender-Based Violence Victims, Fact or Fiction?

Abstract

Judicial cooperation between EU member States shows us the limits of the EU. These limits are not only encountered by the European legislator; national legislators and judges encounter them too. The existence of different legal systems complicates mutual recognition. The difficulties during the creation process of the Directive 2011/99/EU on the European Protection Order show us how much the EU needs to be built still. During the negotiations there was a real political will and the member States had the necessary sensitivity to propose the creation of protection measures at a European level. What failed was the lack of previous harmonization which exceedingly complicates mutual recognition and the refusal from the member States to let go of their last redoubt of national sovereignty. Gender-based violence victims find an additional problem: the non-existence of a gender concept in the EU. We must ask ourselves if we are building the EU in a proper way. Throughout this article we will discuss the creation of a European Criminal Law with gender-based violence victims as an example. At the end we propose several measures in order to fight against ignorance and fear towards using mutual recognition instruments.