Health Minister wants age of consent raised from 13

The Minister for Health, Social Services and Equality, Ana Mato, has proposed raising the age of consent in Spain from the current 13 to 16 years.

The change would be in line with recommendations by the United Nations and the Council of Europe, which believe the age of consent to a sexual relationship should not be below 15 years.

"In this way we will fight more effectively against the abuses committed against minors and move closer to the European average," Mato told Congress on Wednesday.

The murder of a 13-year-old girl by a near 40-year-old man with whom she was having a sexual relationship sent alarm bells ringing in October 2012. A month after the incident, the Socialists presented a motion requesting that the age of consent be raised —- though it did not specify to what — following a debate among all the parliamentary groups and the submission of expert opinions.

A similar initiative fell by the wayside in 2009 after Basque National Party deputy Emilio Olabarría saw his motion for the then-Socialist government to raise the age of consent unanimously agreed. But it was ultimately never carried out.

The United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway have an age of consent of 16 years, while Ireland sets it at 17. In France and the Netherlands the minimum age for a sexual relationship is 15. The European country with the lowest age of consent is the Vatican, where it is 12 years.