Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-18-Speech-4-065"
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"en.20000518.3.4-065"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, simply raising a problem is an admission of its gravity. Some 500 000 victims of the traffic in human beings arrive each year in Western Europe. It is imperative to tackle trafficking in women because, having shown its determination to fight money laundering, drug trafficking and organised crime, the European Union has forgotten that trafficking in human beings is one of the major aspects of organised crime.
I must congratulate Mrs Sörensen on her report which has come on the eve of the enlargement of the Union to the CCEEs, which are often singled out as the countries of origin or transit in prostitution and modern-day slavery.
As for the method, I must say that the fight against trafficking in human beings does not necessarily need full communitarisation but rather close cooperation between Member States under the aegis of Europol and Interpol. These inter-state structures have proven their effectiveness on the ground.
Our aim is to ensure that trafficking in human beings is regarded as a criminal offence to be severely punished in all Member States. In doing so, examples must also be made of those responsible for instigating such networks.
Given the current state of legislation, we are faced with a wide diversity of penal traditions in our Member States. Establishing specific offences at Community level would therefore lead to an impasse. Instead, we must take inspiration from the method in the Schmid report on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment. The Council of Ministers could, on a proposal from the Commission, draw up a list of criminal behaviour to be combated, which the Member States would be responsible for converting into criminal offences in accordance with their legal traditions.
To conclude, I am sure that this would render the action we are taking to combat this scourge more effective and that we would avoid the pitfalls of a harmonisation which would delay the measures which must now be adopted."@en1
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