Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-05-Speech-2-071"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060905.6.2-071"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I apologise to you all for the late arrival of my flight to Strasbourg this morning, which prevented me from hearing the first part of the debate; my colleague Mr Kovács, however, was here.
Two final remarks: the first is that much has been said about a European telephone helpline to help children in difficulties. The initiative is extremely important, and I can tell you now that we are already preparing a draft framework decision. We were working on it – I was working on it – when I presented the communication on children’s rights to you in June. I can now tell you that preparations for the framework decision on the single European helpline are under way and we shall actually submit it very soon. It is an initiative that will really help a great deal, and so I also thank those who referred to it during the debate.
The final issue has been touched upon by some Members: the idea of having a European directive against violence towards women. I very much like the idea and it is a very interesting one, but I have one concern: finding an appropriate legal basis. We should find one: I do not know whether there is a suitable legal basis in the Treaties for a directive against violence towards women, but if we succeed in resolving this aspect of the legal basis then I shall be politically very much in favour of the idea of harmonising at least the European guidelines for severely punishing cases of criminal violence against women.
This is the beginning of a thought process that we can take up again later. I am grateful to everyone who has taken part in this debate, and I am ready to continue to cooperate with you on these issues.
In general, I sincerely appreciate the way in which Parliament and the Commission have worked on the Daphne programme in recent months. I also heartily thank the rapporteur and the chairman of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. They are well aware that about a year ago I said right from the beginning that I supported the idea of separating the Daphne part dealing with violence towards women and children from the part dealing with drugs prevention, so as to avoid inappropriately confusing the issues.
I am very pleased that there is general agreement today in that respect and that it will be possible to focus more seriously and more emphatically, with about twice as much funding as was provided in the past, on the issue of preventing and reacting to all kinds of violence that affect children and women.
In particular, I believe that the Commission is not only ready, but also very happy to continue cooperating closely with Parliament on implementation measures, in the sense of keeping Parliament continually informed about how the Daphne programmes are being allocated and about the concrete results of the programmes and projects that are actually financed.
There is an important topic that I heard mentioned by a few Members during the latter part of the debate, which is the role of the Member States and the role of Europe.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this subject seems particularly important to me because we cannot just underline the role of the Member States, the police forces and the courts in pursuing and punishing acts of violence at a national level. There is a need for Europe to speak out loudly against any form of violence that increasingly affects women and children.
That is why the Daphne programme is necessary, and that is how it provides added value. It does not detract from the duty of the national police forces or courts to pursue and punish individual cases of violence at a national level. It is our duty, however, to make Europe speak out against crime, which is increasingly transnational and directed against women – for instance, all the kinds of traffic aimed at forced prostitution – and against children – as in everything concerning the horrendous crime of paedophilia, which is more and more becoming a transnational crime. Anyone who still has any doubts needs to be assured that the value added by European action in this area is quite obvious.
I shall now make just a very few comments on certain amendments highlighting some particular kinds of violence. We must be careful not to exclude other kinds of violence, but in what sense? In the sense that, if the draft text makes reference just to certain kinds of actions for which Daphne may grant funding, we risk excluding other forms of violence for which Daphne should also provide funding. I would prefer a more general wording, which covers prevention and reaction to all kinds of violence, without specifying some and therefore without the risk of excluding others.
One particular amendment concerns the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children. A proposed compromise amendment, Amendment 72, confirms the possibility of funding this federation, but it adds another organisation called ENOC. I support the compromise amendment in that, on the one hand, it enables us to grant funding to very specific organisations that are already operational, but with this second organisation, on the other hand, the range of potential funding beneficiaries is made a little broader."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples