Strasbourg, 24/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, MEPs adopted a draft recommendation that ultimately aims to push member states into elaborating an integrated strategy for fighting criminal organisations in the European Union. By adopting the report of Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE, United Kingdom), MEPs voted in favour of a renewed policy for fighting organised crime that will allow them to “get real” in respect to the ultra-sophisticated cooperation existing between the different criminal groups.
In practice, member states are being called on to help set up “Joint Investigation Teams”. They will be expected to draw on effective intelligence through the “development and statistical tool networks”, in an effort to obtain greater knowledge about criminal phenomena and propose action plans for services acting on the ground. MEPs also underlined the need for harmonisation of definitions of offences in areas of crime such as terrorism and criminal procedures.
Other legislative progress is required in these fields, such as the obtaining and eligibility of proof and financial information for identifying and neutralising the proceeds of crime. MEPs also want financial capital from money laundering, and goods resulting from criminal and mafia activities, to be systematically seized and they want legislative measures to be taken to enable these goods to be “redeployed for social objectives”. MEPs are also inviting the Council to grant Europol and Eurojust more autonomy by providing them with “full powers of initiative in their field of competency”, without negatively impacting on the action of national authorities. These additional allocations are also expected to be accompanied by the implementation of “genuine parliamentary accountability”. While calling on member states to show the “utmost vigilance” with regard to possible links, especially financial, between terrorist organisations and organised criminal groups, MEPs are requesting the Council to intensify the reflection process, begun in 2006, on the elaboration of a “genuine internal security architecture”, as part of a framework that strictly guarantees fundamental rights.
The Council is also being called on to devise “a new initiative in the context of transparency and the fight against corruption, which aims to structure our relations with third countries”, as well as closely monitor the action of elected representatives, especially businessmen suspected of having links with organised crime or the mafia. MEPs consider that public opinion is “one of the conditions for success in the fight against organised crime” and are recommending that a “significant communication effort is made” to make successes obtained in this area made known. Ultimately, MEPs are keen to ensure that no areas of prevention are ignored and that consequently any repressive action taken is accompanied by crime prevention projects in schools and in at-risk neighbourhoods.
Three controversial amendments were thrown out by MEPs. The first submitted by Giusto Catania MEP (GUE/NGL, Italy), which aimed to encourage the production of cultures such as opiates for medical and scientific goals, as well as the launch of pilot projects for the industrial use of licit products derived from plants like cannabis and coca leaves. Two other amendments were presented by Marine le Pen and Lydia Schenardi on behalf of the ITS group. The first attempted to link the explosion in organised crime in Europe with the “destruction” of member states' borders, and the second called on countries to re-establish the borders referred to. (bc)