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DRAFT REPORT (2026/2056(INI))

On chemical submission: addressing its consequences on women's rights and safety in the EU

FEMM-PR-792177

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality · Rapporteur: Emma Rafowicz

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 11 Oct 2026

Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

This is a draft report by Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on chemical submission and its effects on women's rights and safety in the EU. It calls for an EU-wide aggravating circumstance where a perpetrator administers a psychoactive substance to facilitate an offence or exploits a person's substance-induced vulnerability. It asks Member States to give victims free medical, forensic and psychological care without requiring a criminal complaint, and to train police, judicial, healthcare and forensic staff. It calls on the Commission to fund EU-level research, set a common data methodology and monitoring system, and to monitor medicines liable to be used for drug-facilitated sexual assault. It calls for full application of the Digital Services Act where platforms facilitate such offences, and for action on substance-facilitated violence in human trafficking.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes that Parliament call for an EU-wide aggravating circumstance for chemical submission, consent-based responses, free victim care without a criminal complaint, EU research and data, platform regulation, professional training and monitoring of substances used in such offences.

Key points

  1. Calls for an EU-wide aggravating circumstance for intentionally administering a psychoactive substance to facilitate an offence, or exploiting a person's vulnerability under such substances.
  2. Requests that this aggravating circumstance be combinable with others, particularly where the victim is a minor, multiple perpetrators are involved, or a position of trust or authority is abused.
  3. Calls on the Commission and Member States to align responses to chemical submission and drug-facilitated sexual assault with a consent-based approach to sexual violence.
  4. Calls on Member States to guarantee victims prompt, confidential and free medical and forensic care, psychological support, emergency contraception or abortion, post-exposure prophylaxis and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, without a criminal complaint.
  5. Calls on the Commission to fund EU-level research and establish a common methodology and monitoring system, with comparable and disaggregated data on substances, settings, victim-perpetrator relationship and case outcomes.
  6. Calls for full application of the Digital Services Act, including systemic risk and illegal content obligations, cooperation with competent authorities and effective sanctions where platforms facilitate drug-facilitated sexual assault.
  7. Calls on Member States to provide specialised training and guidelines for healthcare, police, judicial and forensic professionals on identification, screening, evidence preservation, trauma responses and preventing stereotypes, victim-blaming and secondary victimisation.
  8. Calls on the Commission and Member States to fully implement Article 35 of Directive (EU) 2024/1385 through awareness-raising and education on consent, sexual integrity and bodily autonomy, with attention to minors.
  9. Calls on the Commission and Member States to monitor medicinal products and other substances liable to be used for drug-facilitated sexual assault and strengthen pharmacovigilance cooperation with the European Medicines Agency.
  10. Condemns chemical submission and substance-facilitated violence as means of coercion and exploitation in human trafficking, and urges Member States to address these practices, with attention to migrants and persons in vulnerable situations.

Who is affected

  • Women and girls, who the report says are disproportionately affected and face stigma and victim-blaming.
  • Victims of chemical submission and drug-facilitated sexual assault, who would get free medical, forensic and psychological care without a criminal complaint.
  • Healthcare, police, judicial and forensic professionals, who would receive specialised training and guidelines.
  • Online platforms, which would face Digital Services Act obligations where they facilitate drug-facilitated sexual assault.
  • Migrants and persons in vulnerable situations, who are singled out for attention in trafficking-related substance-facilitated violence.

Figures and deadlines

  • Nearly one in five respondents consider women subjected to sexual violence while under the influence of alcohol or drugs to be partly responsible.
  • Fewer than 20 % of sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement, with drug-facilitated sexual assault cases reported even less frequently.

Legal basis: Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union, and Articles 8, 10, 19, 83, 153 and 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.