A Long-overdue Reform for Europe’s Crime Victims
The European Parliament today adopted the revised Victims’ Rights Directive, the most significant
overhaul of EU victim-protection legislation in more than a decade. The new Directive updates the
2012 framework that establishes minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims
of crime across the Union. It introduces EU-wide helplines (116 006), strengthens individual
assessment of victims’ needs, improves access to legal aid and compensation, and better protects
victims’ personal data from disclosure to offenders. These are meaningful advances, and ONE OF US
— the largest European citizens’ initiative in history, representing over 1.8 million signatories across
the EU — acknowledges the genuine progress they represent for the protection of human dignity.
The Directive was voted 21 May 2026: 440 votes in favour, 49 against, and 84 abstentions.
A Pattern of Ideological Encroachment on EU Legislation
ONE OF US cannot, however, remain silent in the face of a deliberate and worrying pattern that has
become all too familiar in recent EU legislative cycles: the systematic insertion of abortion-related
language into texts whose subject matter has nothing to do with abortion. This Directive on Victims’
Rights is only the latest example. Well-organised lobbying groups have made it their strategy to use
every available EU legislative vehicle — from directives on working conditions to frameworks on
healthcare, and now victim support — to advance abortion as though it were an established EU-level
right. It is not.
Abortion policy is, and must remain, a matter of exclusive national competence. Article 168(7) of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is unambiguous: the definition of health policy, and
the organisation and delivery of health services, falls to Member States alone. This is not a
technicality — it reflects deeply held differences between European societies on questions of
fundamental ethical importance. It is precisely the kind of question the principle of subsidiarity was
designed to protect from centralisation at the EU level. Why should the European institutions
overstep their remit and increasingly promote abortion, choosing instead to support and promote a
view of human life and freedom that is clearly biased and out of touch with reality and the
expectations of so many women across Europe? When will the EU have the courage to face reality
and listen to the many women who wish to have options other than abortion?
What the Text Actually Says
Recital 13 of the adopted Directive explicitly states that sexual and reproductive healthcare services
for victims of sexual violence “can include … access to abortion.” Article 9 then requires Member
States to provide or refer victims to “sexual and reproductive healthcare services” as part of
specialist victim support. The text adds a caveat “where legally available in a given Member State in accordance with national law” but this fig leaf does not change the reality: abortion has been written into an EU directive for the first time.
Victims of sexual violence deserve every form of genuine support: medical care, psychological
counselling, emergency treatment, trauma therapy, legal assistance. ONE OF US fully supports the
provision of all such services. But framing abortion as a component of victim support — and
embedding it in binding EU law — is a political choice dressed up as victim protection. It is a misuse
of this legislation, and a disservice to the real and urgent needs of crime victims.
The Victim this Text Does Not See
There is a profound and painful irony in a directive devoted to the dignity and rights of victims that,
in the same breath, calls for access to abortion. The unborn child — a human being at the earliest
stage of life, with no voice and no vote — is the one victim this text does not see, and does not
protect. A woman who has an abortion because she is alone and lacks support is another kind of
victim – one that is, unfortunately, all too common in Europe – whom this text overlooks. ONE OF US
was founded precisely to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. We do so again today.
Statement by Tonio Borg, President of ONE OF US
“The revised Victims’ Rights Directive contains real and important advances for the
protection of crime victims across Europe, and we welcome them. But we deeply
regret that ideologues have once again exploited a piece of victim-centred legislation
to advance their abortion agenda. The explicit reference to abortion in this text is a
brazen overreach of the principle of subsidiarity and a violation of the EU’s treaty
obligations to respect the competence of Member States over their own health
policies. The EU’s founding commitment to human dignity cannot be selectively
applied — it must extend to every human being, including those not yet born. ONE OF
US calls on all EU institutions to resist this creeping ideological colonisation of
European law and to restore the integrity of the legislative process.”
What Comes Next
The Directive will now proceed to formal adoption by the Council through a qualified majority vote,
before entering into force. Member States will then have two years to transpose it into national law.
ONE OF US calls on Member States to reject this text in the Council of Ministers, as it undermines
their subsidiarity and represents a clear overreach at EU level.
