8 women are killed every day in Europe

The Socialist and Democrats Group (SD) in the European Parliament on Wednesday urged EU member states to ratify the Council of Europe's convention on violence against women and called on the European Commission to present a European law to address this issue. In Europe, seven women are killed every day and one woman in five has experienced severe physical violence at least once in her life, it said. During a seminar held today in Brussels, SD Group president Hannes Swoboda said: "Violence against women is sadly still a problem of pandemic proportions. It affects women in all socio-economic groups in society." He noted that so far, only 17 EU member states have signed the convention and just one EU country - Portugal - has ratified it. SD group spokeswoman Britta Thomsen said "as more and more people are travelling around in Europe, it is important to have common rules to protect victims."