Brussels, 01/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on 24 November, the European Parliament's Women's Rights Committee unanimously adopted the own initiative report by Christa Prets (PES, Austria) on strategies for preventing the trafficking and prostitution of vulnerable women and children. The report will be discussed by the EP at a plenary in January. It calls on the Commission to organise a European Anti-Trafficking Day with an international logo, and for Commission and Member States to take measures and pass legislation to combat the trend of using the internet to publish information leading to the sexual exploitation of women and children. The report suggests research at national and EU level on the factors underlying human trafficking and urges the Commission to work with the Council of Europe and other international bodies in this connection.
EPP-ED coordinator and President of the 'Fondation Scelles' in France, Nicole Fontaine explains in a press release that the Women's Rights Committee's vote avoided the impasse of a sterile debate between political groups and MEPs from different Member States, Instead, the report laws the foundations, for the first time, for a common policy to combat human trafficking. Fontaine points out that legislation on prostitution varies widely among Member States. Prostitution is outlawed in Sweden and regulated in Germany, fore example. The former EP President says she is convinced that if the vote is confirmed in plenary, Commissioners Franco Frattini and Vladimir Spidla will hear the EP's message and focus on putting its proposals into practice as quickly as possible.
Estimates from international bodies like the IOM (International Organisation for Migration) suggest between 600,000 and 800,000 men, women and children fall victim each year to transnational human trafficking, 80% of them being women and young girls.