Dresden, 16/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - European justice ministers will be looking at their national legislation on monitoring violent video games so that the rules governing such games may be made stricter where necessary. For now, however, they are not contemplating adoption of a European regulation on such games, the EU Presidency said on Tuesday. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said after the Informal Justice Council in Dresden: “We shall be drawing up a list of our legislation (…) to give us an overall picture of the legal situation in all States”. Commissioner Franco Frattini, for his part, said that every Member State will continue to decide what games are to be considered violent. Different countries have different cultures, he said, adding: “This is not a decision to be taken in Brussels”. According to the Commissioner, the most unfortunate thing is the lack of control over games sold to children under the age of 16. He therefore recommended that Member States should step up surveillance of retailers who sell such games, imposing criminal sanctions if necessary. The debate comes in the wake of a polemic which began in Italy in early November 2006 after a controversial game, The Rule of Rose, came onto the market (EUROPE 9306). The Commission had hitherto rejected the idea of legislating on this matter (EUROPE 9343) despite the wishes expressed by several States. Luc Frieden, Luxembourg Justice Minister, confided to EUROPE that he considered it appropriate to legislate on this matter as “extremely violent games in Europe are a problem for all European countries”. He nonetheless went on to admit that some countries are “reticent” about supporting European regulation on this. Diplomatic sources say in this context that violent games could “at most come under a code of conduct”. (bc)