Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-25-Speech-2-297"
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"en.20051025.23.2-297"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should first of all like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Newton Dunn, and also, of course, the draftsmen of the other committees that have addressed the topic of the framework decision on organised crime.
I am particularly pleased that the Commission’s proposal has received a very warm welcome from the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, as well as the rapporteur’s support, and I believe I can say with all certainty that the proposed amendments are heading in the right direction. I agree with the overall spirit of these amendments, or most of them, at least.
In particular, I believe it is right to specify and lay down a broader range of penalties, such as the seizure of assets, the principle of publishing judicial decisions, and disqualification from pursuing a professional or business activity; I think it is important to highlight the penalty of disqualification from public office for those found guilty of belonging to a criminal organisation. The issue of disqualification measures is currently being examined by the Commission, and I shall put forward some ideas for reflection in an
communication on the subject by the end of this year or the beginning of next.
I am also convinced that, in order to fight organised crime, we have to hit those responsible where it hurts most, that is, in their pockets: measures targeting the assets of organised crime are therefore indispensable.
I am in favour of the idea of setting up a central unit in each Member State to coordinate operations against organised crime and to handle the actions involved in making positive use of the assets that should be seized from perpetrators of very serious crimes, that is to say, members of criminal organisations.
Another interesting topic in the report is informant protection. The protection of witnesses and those who cooperate is a very important matter, as such people need to be safeguarded from the risk of reprisals by criminal organisations. I can tell you that the Commission intends to put forward an organic proposal on this topic as well, taking account of the excellent work that Europol is doing in this area and also of the witness protection work that the Council of Europe is developing.
The final subject, which is particularly close to the rapporteur’s heart, concerns information sharing. We often find ourselves facing criminal activity on which we do not have adequate information or statistical data. As you will probably know already, the Commission has recently drawn up a proposal for a European crime statistics system. It is a necessary part of our strategy for preventing and combating serious crime because, unless we have safe, reliable and above all comparable statistical data, we shall not have a very effective means of prevention that can enable us to attack crime at its roots. The Commission is therefore also working on the statistical aspect of criminal activities.
I shall conclude my speech by saying that Europe certainly needs a more incisive and more coherent policy to prevent and combat organised crime, which unfortunately is expanding considerably in a great many areas, from the terrible traffic in human beings to drugs and arms trafficking."@en1
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