1 The Lessons of History. The Role of the Nation States and the EU in Fighting Violence Against Women in 10 European Countries – DRAFT PAPER Consuelo Corradi 1 and Heidi Stöckl 2 1 PhD, Professor of Sociology, Department of Human Studies, Lumsa University, Borgo S. Angelo 13, 00193 Rome (Italy), Tel: + 39 06 68422 215, Fax: +39 06 68422 329, Email: corradi@lumsa.it 2 PhD, Lecturer, Social and Mathematical Epidemiology Group, Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK, Tel: +44 (0)20 7927 2506, Fax: +44 (0)20 7436 5389, Email: heidi.stoeckl@lshtm.ac.uk Abstract The analysis of social policies and services to fight violence against women and intimate partner violence offers an innovative point of view on evaluation of the role of the state as well as supra-national bodies. While attempting to provide a historical reconstruction of policies in 10 European countries, this article aims to identify key actors of policy making and to describe their interconnection. The 10 countries under study are: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. The article charts the countries with regard to state intervention on violence against women, and it evaluates policy developments over 40 years, at the level of nation states and the EU as an accelerating factor of change. The 2014 FRA prevalence survey is discussed in order to show quantitative differences between countries. At the end, the article argues that the state is a powerful instrument, on condition that it acts under pressure from or in combination with both activists and supra-national bodies. In Europe, there still is a need to strike a balance between respect for historical differences and bridging difference ǁheŶ it is ďased oŶ Đultuƌal featuƌes that aƌe haŵpeƌiŶg ǁoŵeŶs safetLJ aŶd ǁell-being. Keywords: ǁoŵeŶs ŵoǀeŵeŶts, intimate partner violence, violence against women, policy-making, prevalence.