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Women Against Violence Europe Network

WAVE

WAVE is a network of over 180 women’s CSOs in 46 European countries, which are all working towards preventing and tackling violence against women, their children and girls (VAWG).

Lobbying Activity

Response to EU’s next long-term budget (MFF) – EU funding for cross-border education, training and solidarity, youth, media, culture, and creative sectors, values, and civil society

24 Nov 2025

The Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) Network, representing over 1,600 womens organisations committed to defending womens rights and combating violence against women and girls across Europe, submits these recommendations as part of the European Commissions consultation on the AgoraEU CERV+ Strand for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (20282034). This submission underscores the critical importance of maintaining the main objectives of the CERV+ programme, with particular emphasis on preserving and ring-fencing the DAPHNE strand so it remains dedicated to combating violence against women and girls. WAVE strongly advocates for ensuring that these vital resources are directed to civil society organisations, especially feminist organisations and womens specialist services, whose essential work promotes gender equality, upholds EU values, and protects the human rights of all women to live free from gender-based violence. Detailed feedback and specific recommendations from WAVE can be found in the attached document.
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Meeting with Elena Kountoura (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Sept 2025 · Meeting with WAVE representatives

Response to EU Civil Society Strategy

4 Sept 2025

The WAVE Network submission to the EU Civil Society Strategy consultation highlights the urgent need for a robust, long-term EU commitment to safeguarding civil society, with a focus on feminist and womens organisations as pillars of democracy and human rights. The document emphasizes escalating threats to civic space across Europe, such as smear campaigns, restrictive laws (including foreign agent-style measures), SLAPPs, and systemic anti-rights funding by politically and religiously motivated actors. It warns that these pressures undermine EU legitimacy, roll back gender equality, and disproportionately harm women, girls, and marginalized groups. WAVE stresses that womens specialist services and feminist CSOs have a proven track record of transformative impact, from delivering essential services and crisis support in the pandemic and Ukraine war to shaping public policy and ensuring rights-based standards. However, many face legal threats, politicized funding barriers, bureaucratic obstacles, and attempts to silence advocacyespecially following rises in far-right influence after the 2024 European elections. The submission calls for the EU Civil Society Strategy to unequivocally defend civic space by denouncing intimidation, establishing rapid protection mechanisms (legal, psychosocial, digital, and financial), and guaranteeing safe and accessible pathways for redress. It advocates that civil society be recognized not only as service providers, but as strategic partners in policymaking and independent watchdogs, with structured, ongoing dialogue and feedback embedded across all EU institutions. WAVE urges the EU to: Defend advocacy as a protected legal activity, resisting all legislative efforts to restrict it. Explicitly support advocacy work within all grant streams and operational funding, ensuring sustainable, multi-year, and flexible financingespecially for women's, feminist, and minority-led CSOs. Implement robust, transparent, and accessible funding mechanisms, ring-fenced for gender equality, minority inclusion, and grassroots organisations within and beyond EU borders. Institutionalize intersectional anti-discrimination and participation standards, with binding complaints and redress systems to ensure genuine inclusion in all consultation and funding processes. Monitor civic space independently, publish disaggregated scorecards, and link funding eligibility to respect for human rights and open civic space. Guarantee policy coherence so that protections and support extend equally to CSOs in accession and neighbourhood countries. In closing, WAVE calls on the EU to match bold principles with concrete mechanisms that meaningfully guarantee participation, independent advocacy, sustainable funding, and intersectional inclusion. Civil society, especially feminist actors, must be enabled to fulfil their watchdog role and anchor European democracy and civic space protection.
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Response to Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030

11 Aug 2025

The Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) Network, representing 186 members and around 1,600 womens organisations, welcomes the European Commissions consultation on the next EU Gender Equality Strategy and calls for a comprehensive, transformative approach to preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls (VAWG). While the EU has acknowledged prevention as a priority, current efforts remain fragmented, overly reliant on awareness campaigns, and insufficiently coordinated across all levels of prevention. WAVE stresses that an effective strategy must apply the three essential and interconnected pillars of prevention in a systematic way: primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Despite strong research demonstrating that, like a fork that cannot function if one prong is missing, prevention will be ineffective if any of these layers is ignored, there remains an overreliance in the EU on fragmented awareness-raising campaigns as the go-to tool for prevention; this falls short of producing lasting change. Many such campaigns lack targeted messaging, coordination, and sustained impact, often duplicating efforts and failing to engage broader society or shift entrenched behaviour. Too frequently, these initiatives become substitutes for comprehensive policy solutions, obscuring the structural inequalities and patriarchal norms that underpin violence. WAVE advocates for new policy initiatives to make violence against women and girls an explicit Eurocrime in EU law through the expansion of Article 83(1) TFEU, providing for binding and harmonised criminal justice responses across all Member States. Recognising VAWG as a Eurocrime would not only create uniform standards for prevention, protection, and prosecution but also send a clear message of zero tolerance from the EU. WAVE further highlights the indispensable role that feminist civil society organisations play, not only in prevention and advocacy, but also as watchdogs, educators, and providers of specialist services. Despite their critical contributions, they face shrinking resources and open backlash. The EC must guarantee sustainable funding and protection for these organisations so they can continue their work, shape prevention strategies, and support victims and communities. Their expertise is central to drafting meaningful laws, facilitating national implementation of key directives, and closing gender gaps across Europe. The situation of migrant and refugee women remains especially precarious in the fight against VAWG. WAVE spotlights their disproportionate exposure to violence and the systemic obstacleslinguistic, financial, social, and institutionalthat impede their right to protection and support. EU policies must move beyond generic gender mainstreaming and specifically prioritise the rights, safety, and empowerment of migrant and refugee women. Lastly, the WAVE on a feminist approach to security, calling for EU preparedness strategiesincluding responses to crises, conflict, and natural disastersto systematically consider gender-specific vulnerabilities, the unique experiences of women and girls, and the need to embed womens participation in planning and response. The concept of human security must be at the heart of these efforts, emphasising freedom from fear, want, and all forms of violence. This approach recognises that VAWG is both a fundamental breach of human rights and a threat to the well-being and security of societies as a whole. WAVE concludes that the next EU Gender Equality Strategy must move beyond symbolic gestures and deliver enforceable, gender-responsive actions and resources that address the rights and needs of all women and girlsincluding the most marginalised. Only this path will ensure true human security and a future free from all forms of gender-based violence.
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Meeting with Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus (Member of the European Parliament)

3 Jul 2025 · Combatting Violence Against Women

Meeting with Lina Gálvez (Member of the European Parliament, Committee chair)

16 Oct 2024 · Violence against women

Meeting with Manon Aubry (Member of the European Parliament) and Choisir La cause des femmes

16 Oct 2024 · Droits des femmes

Meeting with Elena Kountoura (Member of the European Parliament)

16 Oct 2024 · Meeting with WAVE representatives

Meeting with Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus (Member of the European Parliament) and European Women's Lobby

16 Oct 2024 · Commissioners-designate hearings and priorities in the FEMM Committee

Meeting with Per Clausen (Member of the European Parliament) and Social Economy Europe

17 Jul 2024 · Social issues for the coming term

Meeting with Klára Dobrev (Member of the European Parliament) and European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities

16 Jul 2024 · The future of Social Europe

Meeting with Robert Biedroń (Member of the European Parliament, Committee chair)

15 Feb 2024 · Ratification of the Istanbul Convention by Armenia

Meeting with Malin Björk (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

25 Oct 2023 · Gender Based Violence, WSS

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Amnesty International Limited and

14 Sept 2023 · Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence

Meeting with Malin Björk (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

26 Jan 2023 · Gender-based violence

Meeting with Evin Incir (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Prospera International Network of Women's Funds

25 Jan 2023 · Violence against women and domestic violence

Meeting with Frances Fitzgerald (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and

27 Oct 2022 · Proposal for a Directive on combatting violence against women and domestic violence

Meeting with Diana Riba I Giner (Member of the European Parliament) and Prospera International Network of Women's Funds

21 Jun 2022 · Gender-based Violence Directive

Meeting with Alice Kuhnke (Member of the European Parliament) and European Digital Rights and

19 Apr 2022 · Roundtable: Gender-based Violence

Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner) and Amnesty International Limited and

6 Apr 2022 · Cabinet Dalli invited Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to discuss concerns equality and non-discrimination CSOs are raising regarding the situation of people fleeing from the Ukraine

Response to Amendment of the EU rules on victims’ rights

22 Dec 2021

Tackling and preventing violence against women and their children must be a key strategic priority now and in the future, if the EU aims to improve the situation of crime victims, particularly in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas many people have been strongly affected by this pandemic, women from ALL backgrounds who represent 50% or more of the population in Europe, have been disproportionately affected in terms of increased (male) violence, cutbacks of live-saving women’s specialist services in many countries due to gender-neutral budgeting, right-wing and conservative backlash against women’s rights, as well as a substantial and shocking increase of femicides and in many cases accompanied by infanticides and feticides. To improve the situation of women and child victims of male violence in Europe, gender-specific language in legislative frameworks and policy-making is crucial, for effective prevention, protection as well as prosecution of this severe human rights violation – as is sustainable funding for women’s specialist support services (WSS) such as shelters, centres and helplines. WSS are life-saving and absolutely essential and enable women to access holistic, confidential & victim-centred support in one location e.g. practical advice, emergency and long-term accommodation, advocacy, accompaniment of women when engaging with state services (e.g. police, social services, judiciary..), psychological & legal counselling, specialist support for children & specialist support for women from minoritised groups. WSS are very experienced in supporting marginalised groups of women e.g. from ethnic minorities, migrant and refugee women, women with disabilities and lesbian/bi-sexual women. WAVE’s decades of experience demonstrates, that most women who pertain to one or more of these groups, would not approach generic victim services and state services, due to fearing discrimination and racism, their specific needs not being met, language barriers etc. WSS also have effective referral pathways to other key voluntary & statutory services and advocate for women when they engage with the criminal justice system, making it more effective and possible for both the victim and the judiciary to interact. Experience and data from WAVE member countries shows that women engaging with WSS are able to leave a violent/abusive situation up to 8 times faster, than those accessing generic victim support services. WSS are saving enormous human costs when they support victims and substantially reduce the risk of further violence or secondary victimization, due to their tailored, very experienced and effective services. Additionally, WSS are also economically highly valuable, since they return on average €6-8 of social value for every €1 invested in their services to overall society, in terms of savings for police & social service interventions, emergency accommodation, hospital costs, lost working-hours to the economy because of injury and trauma etc. A gender-neutral perspective in policy making and legislation, effectively denies male violence against women, as it views both men and women as being equally impacted by gender-based violence. This perspective is at the heart of why and where violence against women is often ignored and therefore tolerated, normalised and accepted. It also leads to very problematic implications for children e.g. in child custody proceedings, as gender-neutrality often ignores fathers as perpetrators of violence and the devastating effects of witnessing violence, forcing children to be in contact with violent fathers (leading to an exacerbation of violence and in the worst cases femicides and infanticides). Gender neutrality increases abuse minimisation, victim-blaming, lack of specialist support services and the reinforcement of male privilege – all of which run completely contrary to effectively tackling violence against women. In short: gender-neutrality severely harms and even kills women and girls!
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Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)

2 Oct 2020 · Istanbul Convention; combating violence against women in times of coronavirus.

Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

10 Apr 2019 · Preventing and tackling violence against women and girls