Brussels, 25/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Italian Presidency proposes that the bans on access to football stadiums pronounced in a Member State should be applied throughout the EU, mainly for international matches. It has submitted to its partners a proposal of decision intended to endorse this principle - even if this text is not binding. Italy above all proposes that the Member States that have not yet done so should introduce into their legislation provisions for banning access to football matches by persons guilty of violence during previous sports events. It also considers that these provisions should be accompanied by fines if the ban is violated, if not special prevention measures. Finally, Italy suggests that all the Member States should take the necessary provisions to be able to apply such a decision taken in another Member State. In order to ensure that bans are well applied in the other Member States, Italy proposes that all decisions to impose bans should be communicated to the other Member States through the intermediary of the national information points, designated since an early decision in April 2002 concerning the security of football matches.
The organisation for the defence of public freedoms, Statewatch, questions how appropriate this proposal is, stressing that, so far, very few Member States impose bans or preventive detention measures. A survey carried out by the Netherlands for the Council on football violence during the season 2001-2002 (national and international matches) shows that the instruments for expelling people from stadiums or for banning access were used considerably in four countries: Italy (2220 times), the United Kingdom (1440), Germany (1368) and the Netherlands (1008). In the other Member States, there were only a few decisions of this kind taken (68 in all in all the other Member States). There were more arrests in Germany (317), the Netherlands (253), Denmark (153) and Greece (128). Preventive detention was only employed in Germany (405), Greece (184) and Sweden (19). The study, however, shows how important it is to have better police cooperation between Member States, mainly with a view to enlargement.