Alessandra Mussolini delivers a sanitary pad to Gentiloni, blitz against the Tampon Tax- Corriere.it

Blitz in the press room of the European Commission by Alessandra Mussolini. The Forza Italia MEP, at the end of the press conference on the budget guidelines for 2024, approached the speaker's desk in the hall of the Berlaymont building in Brussels and wished the Economy Commissioner Paul Gentiloni happy March 8 and gave him a absorbent with wings, because those with wings, he later explained, cost more. The action of the MEP is part of the battle she is carrying on to obtain the detaxation of absorbentswhich women need constantly over a long period of life.

Violations of health rights - says Mussolini, in a note - are a form of violence that hinders progress towards gender equality and the European Parliament has called on European Union countries to ensure that high quality rights are offered , comprehensive and accessible and to remove all barriers that prevent women from using these services. In this context - he continues - the European institution underlined the negative effects of the Tampon Tax on gender equality and called on Member States to take advantage of the flexibility introduced in the VAT directive and apply exemptions or 0% VAT rates to these essential goods.

Currently - continues Mussolini - in Europe only Ireland has abolished the tax on sanitary pads while other states including Scotland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have provided for free distribution for female students, in prisons and public bodies. The Tampon Tax in Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and Portugal oscillates between 4 and 7%, in Poland, Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria 10%. In Italy it was recently reduced to 5% with the 2023 Budget law. Women on average - remember - have menstruation for about 40 years of their life (fertile age 12-51 years) which means that they will have a cycle for about 2,400 daysconsuming from 11,000 to 14,000 sanitary pads with one expenditure that is around 6 thousand euros. We need sanitary pads not to be seen as a luxury item but to ensure adequate access to intimate hygiene devices. We therefore ask as a delegation from Forza Italia-Ppe: menstrual leave, the 0% Tampon Tax and the harmonization in the member states of the rules concerning the rights to health and gender equality, he concludes.