Brussels/Stockholm, 10/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - "The European Union will redouble its efforts this year to fight against the trafficking of human beings, and notably against the trafficking in women and children, by working towards the elimination of loopholes and the harmonisation of laws across borders": this is what was announced by Commissioner for Home Affairs and Justice Antonio Vitorino, on 9 January in Stockholm (where he was for the Commission meeting with the Swedish Presidency). For the Commissioner, "there cannot be any refuge for criminals, who must be prosecuted in the same in all the Member States".
The fight against criminality is a priority both for the Commission as for the Swedish (which will concentrate more specifically on its fight against organised crime as such) and Belgian Presidencies (which, it, will concentrate on the problems stemming from asylum and immigration policies), specified the spokesperson for Mr Vitorino. This problem is increasingly becoming more important as the EU prepares to open its borders to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe - from which have come some 500,000 women out of which we do not know how many have been prostituted in the EU over the last decade, noted Antonio Vitorino. The Commissioner indicated that "the work carried out for a definition of the trafficking of human beings and the penalties given would be intensified during the first quarter 2001, the aim being to achieve a decision next May". This issue will also be on the agenda of the informal meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers, which will take place on next 8 and 9 February in Stockholm. For the Swedish Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom, "what is important, is to see this problem as an international problem that must be tackled together".