The protection of victims of gender violence in the Europe Union. Special reference to the mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters

Abstract

Gender violence figures are overwhelming. From this reality, the European Union has not remained impassive and, although it does not have specific legal basis to act in the gender violence area, this has not been an obstacle to fight against this scourge that crosses borders, since it is a necessary element to promote the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. From that spirit, different regulatory instruments have been adopted during these recent years to ensure that victims can freely move through the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, as well as to protect them. Directive 2011/99/EU, on the European Protection Order and Regulation 606/2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters are proof of this. Both instruments, on the basis of mutual recognition principle, guarantee the recognition and enforcement throughout the territory of the Union of protection measures for victims issued by a Member state. Directive and Regulation rule the same measures and have practically the same objectives, but based on different recognition mechanisms. In this paper we examinate the protection system created and focus our analysis on Regulation 606/2013, instrument of judicial cooperation in civil matters that was basically conceived as a complement to the European Protection Order regulated by Directive 2011/99/EU.