Strasbourg, 17/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - Although the European Parliament took a clear stance in Strasbourg on 15 March in favour of combating the sexual exploitation of women during major international sporting events (EUROPE 9152), Nicole Fontaine (EPP-ED, France) said that the 21st century should be a century in which this “new form of slavery”, forced prostitution, is banished from our society as it affects thousands of women and children each year. Speaking on behalf of the EP, Nicole Fontaine considered that it is unbearable that international sporting events, or any other events that draw huge masses of people, should act as a channel to draw in forced and organised prostitution. She went on to conclude that, however strong the protests from Parliament are, this will not be enough. She also congratulated Commissioner Franco Frattini for the measures he presented recently to combat this phenomenon. In addition to the measures already considered on 8 March this year (see EUROPE 9148), the Commissioner has considered legal proceedings in the countries where the people organising the trafficking originate from, or even penal sanctions against clients knowingly making use of the services of people forced in prostitution against their will. Nicole Fontaine said such measures would have to be operational on time, while Slovak EPP-ED MEP Anna Zaborska, President of the European Parliament's Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee, slammed the behaviour of FIFA managers (the International Federation of Football Associations) who were clearly not at all shocked by the organisation of degenerate behaviour. In a letter to Zaborska at the end of February, FIFA President Joseph Blatter said that it was not possible for FIFA to control what goes on outside its stadiums and it could not intervene in the sovereignty of a country, whether politically or legally. Zaborska added that she had had the impression that FIFA had given itself the target of promoting peace and therefore called for all men, particularly men in the football world, to publicly support her cause.