€189 million for fighting violence against women from the Rights and Citizenship Programme

In Europe, 18 women on average are killed daily and 12 of them are murdered by their partners or other family members. More than a tenth suffer sexual violence involving the use of force. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, one in four European women will be victims of violence during their lives. 26% of children and young people report physical violence in childhood.

The only European programme that aims to contribute to the prevention and combating of all forms of public or private violence victimizing children, young people and women is the Daphne Programme, which ends at the end of 2013.

Its successor, the newly-created Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme, which will serve as an umbrella programme merging three current programmes, adopts Daphne’s objective of tackling violence against children, young people and women. It remains an EU priority and continues, unfortunately, to be necessary.

The Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme has a budget of roughly €439 million.

Italian MEP, Roberta Angelilli, describes this new framework as “an important programme for strengthening awareness and knowledge of the rights and responsibilities associated with citizenship of the EU, to allow citizens to fully exercise their rights without any discrimination. The credibility of the European project and the confidence of voters and citizens are at stake: it is our duty to give concrete answers to these ongoing problems in terms of citizenship rights that are at the heart of Europe”.

The programme restructuring has raised some concerns regarding the maintenance of the previous programmes and their financing.

MEP Regina Bastos stressed that "Daphne has been a real success since its launch in 1997, both in terms of popularity among interested parties and in terms of effectiveness of the projects that were funded by the programme".

Daphne projects will share 43% (nearly €189 million) of the total Rights and Citizenship Programme budget with 4 other specific objectives.

The Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme will retain the “Daphne” branding for relevant projects, maintaining the visibility and identity of the original programmes.

A proper and balanced budget was assigned to support future Daphne projects, taking into account the amounts that were allocated for 2007-2013. The funding will be distributed annually using a well-adjusted method to ensure continuity of operations and predictability of funding.

The Portuguese MEP Regina Bastos concludes that "one of our main achievements was to ensure that preventing and combating all forms of violence against children, young people and women is a specific objective of the future programme".

Since it began in 1997, Daphne has become a central part of NGO and public authority action in Europe. This programme has brought together the knowledge of many individuals and organizations and explored new paths in research and action, to the benefit of Europe’s most vulnerable citizens.