This thesis examines how the EU constructs the problem of violence against women and domestic violence by analyzing the European Commission Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence 2022/0066 (COD). Utilizing frameworks from Bacchi, Goodwin, and insights from Foucault, Butler, Connell, and Brown, the study highlights how the EU relies upon three problem representations: pervasive violence against women and domestic violence across the EU, the inadequacy of past measures, and the root of this violence in gender inequality and structural discrimination against women to construct the problem of violence against women and domestic violence. Moreover, the construction is framed through the use of gender-based binaries in problem representation and its discourse framing women as inherently vulnerable. The research uncovers historical influences shaping these representations and reveals policy silences, including the marginalization of male, non-binary, and other potential victims, uncritical alignment with established gender equality ideas, and a universalized understanding of women's experiences of violence. These silences contribute to the perpetuation of gender norms and a discourse of European values, which constitute the implications for how the policy has been constructed and comes to be represented.