Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-04-Speech-3-294"
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"en.20080604.28.3-294"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in the resolution on the future of professional football, which we adopted last year on these same benches, we expressly call on the Council to take measures to combat criminal activities in professional football, such as forced prostitution. We literally said this in that text. Just to be clear, it is not the fault of the football authorities that these phenomena occur on the margins of major tournaments. They are almost characteristic of all large-scale international events. However, the sporting world of course has every reason to want this problem tackled efficiently and thoroughly, because of course it makes little sense, ladies and gentlemen, for us to argue for and work towards more fair play in the stadiums and argue against and combat racism in the stations, if in and around the stadiums instances of slavery are tolerated. The ‘Red Card to Forced Prostitution’ campaign worked excellently during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Around 1 000 local and regional action groups and associations were involved in this prevention campaign, and that had a clear deterrent effect upon traffickers in human beings and other criminal networks. The result – and the Commissioner has already referred to this – was that forced prostitution during the 2006 World Cup in Germany was limited to just a few tens of cases, and these were generally not directly related to the World Cup.
It is clear, therefore, that awareness raising and prevention campaigns work. They are highly effective and we must therefore use them once again, including during the coming European championship that commences this week. Therefore, Commissioner, we urge the European Commission to send a letter in this regard to the relevant governments, those of Austria and Switzerland, as Mrs Wortmann-Kool has just rightly stated. I repeat our question. Can you comply with our request and confirm here and now that you will support this initiative?
I have one further comment to make: prevention alone will not suffice. The Member States agreed in 2005 that they would prevent and combat trafficking in human beings but, at national level, the action plan you referred to, Commissioner, is more than ever a dead letter. Now is the time, therefore, to remind the authorities of that action plan. As much as two years ago, the Commissioner of the time, Mr Frattini, said that the role of Europol and Eurojust in this regard had to be strengthened, and Parliament expressly requested the same in its resolution. We therefore also trust, Commissioner, that, in view of this tournament, the Commission and the Council will make greater efforts than ever to put these promises into practice."@en1
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