Laura van Lerberghe / Photo credits: FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP
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09:51, April 25, 2024
The European Parliament has definitively voted on the revision of the Directive on combating trafficking in human beings. The new law criminalizes forced marriage, illegal adoption and exploitation of surrogacy at European level. Criminalizing GPA, what does that mean?
The Directive on combating trafficking in human beings establishes minimum rules relating to the definition of criminal offenses and sanctions since 2011. The European Parliament voted definitively to revise this Directive and now criminalizes forced marriage, illegal adoption and exploitation of surrogacy (GPA).
A crime at European Union level
The exploitation of surrogacy (GPA) is now recognized as a crime at the European Union level in the same way as slavery or forced prostitution, that is to say a serious crime with a cross-border dimension. The Directive particularly targets people who force women to become surrogates or trick them into becoming surrogates. Sanctions will be provided in particular for companies which profit from this practice and which are therefore found guilty of this trafficking.
Member States will be required to respect the objective set by the Directive but they will be able to choose the means to achieve it. This new provision will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Countries will have two years to implement it.
A “victory”, for the spokesperson for the Casablanca Declaration
A “victory” for Olivia Maurel, spokesperson for the Casablanca Declaration, who considers that it is “a step forward towards the universal abolition of surrogacy”. According to her, “the final text remains complex in its formulation”, she explains to Europe 1 Matin. “We’re talking about surrogacy for the purposes of reproductive exploitation, obviously, that’s not what we originally wanted. At the very beginning, when the amendments were proposed, with François-Xavier Bellamy, we had proposed surrogacy [sans la mention d’exploitation reproductive, ndlr]”.
“Complicated” negotiations to arrive at the final text, recognizes Olivia Maurel, even if it finally passed with 563 votes for, 7 against, and 17 abstentions. “It’s not a matter of left or right, it goes beyond that. We’re talking about human dignity, so there should be no political divisions,” underlines the spokesperson for the Casablanca Declaration , herself born by GPA.