Brussels, 28/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption, in Strasbourg on Wednesday, of the own-initiative report by Bill Newton-Dunn (ALDE, United Kingdom) on the proposed framework decision of the Council on the fight against organised crime, the MEPs are calling upon the Member States to reinforce the role of Europol in its function of criminal intelligence and exchanges of information between the police forces of the Member States. This is a first step towards responding to "the situation of war against organised crime", announced by French Senator Pierre Fauchon (UDF) during debates between members of the European and national parliaments on police and legal cooperation (EUROPE 9051).
The European Parliament would like "each Member State to set up a body on major organised crime and one for asset recovery- as such units have recently shown their efficiency in Great Britain and Ireland", said rapporteur Bill Newton-Dunn. The MEPs have also called upon the Member States to collect statistics on certain infringements and to send these to the Commission, which will then be able to put together harmonised statistics for 2006. According to the report, each Member State should adopt the measures necessary to ensure the protection of people providing information which can be used for the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crimes by certain organisations. The MEPs have decided to take up the definition of a "criminal organisation" as worded in the proposed framework decision of the Council of 19 January 2005, as a structured association of at least two people who commit, for material ends, crimes punishable by four years in prison- such as trafficking in weapons, drugs and human beings, economic crimes and money laundering. The MEPs call for stricter penalties for terrorists, those who traffic in human beings and members of the Mafia than for other criminals, and propose that the heads of such organisations should be penalised by a prison sentence of at least 10 years, whilst those belonging to the organisation, including via support activities, would be liable to a five-year prison sentence. As for relations between Europol and Interpol, " it is regrettable that these have not been clearly defined", French Socialist Martine Roure told the plenary. The Parliament has called for cooperation between Interpol and Europol to be stepped up for exchanges of information to be used in investigations on trans-national organised crime, with the reservation of the adoption of a data-protection instrument under the third pillar (see EUROPE 9041). The resolution also stresses that Europol can only be reinforced if it becomes a body of the European Union subject to the democratic controls of the European Parliament.