Pia Micallef: Taking the #MeToo fight to Europe’s parliament

Jeanne Ponte began filling what she called ‘The Little Sexism Notebook’ in 2014, two weeks after she arrived in Brussels as a 23-year-old political assistant.

‘The Little Sexism Notebook: Things Lived, Seen and Heard at the European Parliament’, began recording every act of sexual harassment – starting with one of her first official meetings – when a German MEP blocked her exit and put his arm across her waist, and said: “Are you new here? We should get a drink.”

The momentum that Ponte’s notebook generated within the MeToo movement was a seminal moment inside the European Parliament.

In October, the president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, insisted that the EP committee dealing with harassment issues had not received any cases of sexual harassment, denying there was a problem with sexual harassment inside the EP. “No there isn’t a problem, because we’re working hard… there is a team working on this, in this team there are assistants, civil servants and phycologists among others. Nobody has gone up to the team and told them ‘I have a problem of sexual harassment,” Tajani had said.

But the #MeTooEP campaign galvanised by Jeanne Ponte saw the matter very differently, and vowed to unearth the hidden truth inside the European Parliament that was being hidden by the propaganda fed to the media.

On its website, the campaign publishes testimonials of sexual harassment occurring within the European Parliament in order to rebuke all those who claim that sexual harassment in the EP does not exist. Since its conception, 27 people have come forward and shared their testimonies – including one case of sexual assault, where the victim is allegedly said to still be waiting for the EP committee’s reply, and one case of rape.

One of the co-founders of MeTooEP, whose career started inside the EP and until recently was an aide to Labour MEP Miriam Dalli, is Maltese national Pia Micallef.

“We continue to insist that victims do not feel safe reporting to the parliament’s committee on harassment as the structure in place simply does not protect victims,” Micallef said.

Together with Aranxta Calvaro and Jeanne Ponte, Micallef created the MeTooEP campaign on Women’s Day in March 2018.

“In October of last year, and in reaction to the momentum brought about by the MeToo Movement, Jeanne Ponte contacted the media over a notebook she had been developing over the past five years. The notebook detailed various testimonies of sexual harassment faced by various workers in the European Parliament. Testimonies ranged from everyday sexism to rape and sexual assault,” she said.

Influential: the #MeTooEP activists in SZ magazine

In a reaction, MEPs drafted a resolution calling for more legislative measures to combat sexual harassment in the European Union and specifically within the European Parliament. Despite being voted in favour by a vast majority of MEPs, the resolution has to be given legislative force.

“For this reason, Jeanne, together with me and Aranxta Calvaro, organised the very first every internal manifestation inside the EP: it gathered 600 workers from the Parliament’s 6,000-strong staff, and a subsequent petition gathered the support of 1,000 employees. It was registered as the European Parliament’s very first internal manifestation, which in my opinion should be considered a landmark within European history.”

Micallef’s passion for politics bloomed early in her life. Inspired by parents’ activism at a local level in the early years of her childhood, she says she was influenced to be vocal on a number of different political issues, ultimately identifying herself on the left of social and economic issues.

After university, and having done a brief stint in journalism, she joined Labour MEP Claudette Abela Baldacchino for an internship in Brussels. “Claudette and I developed a strong bond over our shared love of social policy and a desire to better the lives of the most vulnerable in society. My internship turned into the opportunity when I became Claudette’s assistant, and in the next mandate, forming part of Labour MEP Miriam Dalli’s team as a policy advisor on civil liberties, justice and home affairs.”

Micallef today says the MeTooEP movement has been well received by MEPs and staff. “Many have thanked us for coming forward and for not giving up on this fight. Many are aware that the Parliament’s administration continues to refuse to implement the promised measures.”

Micallef says that even then, she could see how tired people were of having to put up with sexual harassment.

“They are fed up of the ‘business as usual’ narrative and have demanded action, and more importantly, they have entrusted the MeTooEP movement to make it happen. And a testament to this is the fact that victims of sexual harassment in the European Parliament keep posting testimonials on our website. The more victims come forward with their encounters of sexual harassment in the European Parliament, the more others finally find the courage within themselves to also speak out.”

Since the adoption of the EP resolution, the EP has announced that it will start mandatory training for everybody working with the European Parliament, however MEPs remain exempt.   

“The training will be mandatory for everyone except MEPs because the Parliament feels they cannot ask MEPs to undertake such training. Which in my opinion highlights a vast sense of ridiculous hypocrisy coming from the administration headed by Tajani and the harassment task force headed by MEP Morin Chartier: it gives the message that MEPs’ prestige is more important than protecting workers against sexual harassment.”

Currently, MeTooEP is meeting with a number of different political group leaders over the past months in order to gain more support for the need to implement the measures.

“All of the political leaders we have met all voted in favour of the resolution, and many of them recognise that it is imperative not to allow such a resolution to become nothing more than a mere press release. At the same time, the constant pressure we have put on the Parliament also helps,” Micallef says.

Micallef says MeTooEP is now working towards a larger framework to combat sexual harassment within the EU. “We are in close contact with other movements across Europe, especially those concentrated in their own national parliaments, such as the French movement BlanceTonPorc, which focuses on sexual harassment in France.”

In the coming weeks, the MeTooEP movement will be embarking on a new part of its campaign to encourage all prospective MEP election candidates to sign a pledge against sexual harassment.

“The pledge would ensure that should the candidate signing the pledge become an MEP during the next mandate, they would commit to only electing vice presidents of the European Parliament who have made a concrete pledge towards implementing the Parliament’s resolution on combatting sexual harassment in its entirety, with no more excuses.”