In 2004 the European Parliament and European Council adopted a directive that, like the United State’ Violence Against Women Act, provides victims of domestic violence with the ability to retain their EU residency even after divorce from their EU resident spouses. Article 13(2) On the rights of citizens of the Union and their Family Members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Members States, (2004/38/EC), Official Journal L 158, 29 April 2004, provides that “divorce, annulment of marriage, or termination of the registered partnership referred to in point 2(b) of Article 2 shall not entail loss of the right of residence of a Union citizen’s family members who are not nationals of a Member State where…(c) this is warranted by particularly difficult circumstances, such as having been a victim of domestic violence while the marriage or registered partnership was subsisting.” This law is binding on Member States.
While not legally binding, a resolution issued by the European Parliament does indicate that criminalization of domestic violence is an appropriate way for Member States to fulfill their legal obligations under EU law. In its Resolution on the report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the state of women's health in the European Community (COM(97)0224 C4-0333/97), Official Journal C175, 21 June 1999, the European Parliament called on Member States to "make domestic violence against women, including rape within marriage and sexual mutilation, a criminal offence and to set up services to help women who are victims of this kind of violence."
Although also non-binding, the Council of the European Union has issued a report containing draft Council conclusions on review of the implementation by the Member States and the EU institutions of the Beijing Platform for Action (13348/02), 12 October 2002, with regard to the issue of domestic violence. The report, to be reviewed by the Social Questions Working Party in late October 2002, includes draft Council conclusions relating to domestic violence indicators and list of indicators prepared by the Danish presidency for measuring Member State compliance with the domestic violence provisions of the Beijing Platform for Action.
In 1986, the European Parliament adopted the Resolution on Violence against Women. In paragraphs ten, nineteen and twenty, the Resolution called for the legal recognition of marital rape, training of those who may come into contact with domestic violence victims, and provision of counseling to victims in shelters. The Resolution recommended that women be provided with legal assistance, and called on national authorities “to ensure increased availability of short-term refuges for periods possibly as short as one or two nights, for women and children who need a place to go for a brief time.” With regard to that housing, the Resolution called on national authorities to recognize, among other things:
the necessity of providing adequate refuge provision, at the rate of one family place per 10 000 of population, . . . the right of all battered women to permanent rehousing, in good standard accommodation, when they feel ready to leave the protection of a refuge, the right of women to return to their own home without the presence of a violent spouse, [and] the necessity for the implementation of measures, in particular civil law, to ensure that any material disadvantage are borne by the author of the violence.
Resolution on Violence against Women, Doc. A2-44/86, in Official Journal of the European Communities, vol. 29, no. C. 176, 23, 25-26 (14 July 1986).