The Belgian Presidency at the EU 2024 Council me with EU Justice Ministers on 26 January 2024 to discuss the regulation of “sex work” and deliberately ignores prostitution survivors.

It is disconcerting to see the Belgian Presidency of the EU 2024 Council inviting EU Justice Ministers to talk about “sex work” without even consulting the groups most affected by prostitution and sexual exploitation – women and girls who are survivors of prostitution and who recount the horrors they have experienced in the system. Consulting the pro-prostitution lobby does not mean engaging meaningfully with those who have been inside the system and are now speaking out against it, as Belgium did before adopting its new law by which it regulated prostitution.

We regret that the Belgian Presidency deliberately ignores the testimonies of prostitution survivors and insists on calling their sexual exploitation “work”, and we remind the Presidency of the September resolution voted by the European Parliament, which clearly states that sex must be based on consent and cannot be replaced by the exchange of money.