Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-03-Speech-2-045"
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"en.20090203.4.2-045"2
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Madam President, I believe this debate has shown the European Parliament’s unanimous commitment to the protection of children.
That, in brief, is my answer, Madam President, but we will have occasion to return to this major issue. I would add that, last week, we had a very nice data protection day. It saw youngsters sending out remarkable warnings to other young people to be careful when they use the Internet.
You are aware that there are now an increasing number of monitoring mechanisms that families can use to make the Internet safer for children to use. I am not saying that things are perfect, but a major effort is being made and, of course, we need to mobilise the entire Internet community.
I wish to stress the concept of ‘kidnap warnings’, because they have not been the subject of many speeches. It really is important for Parliament to encourage the Member States, as it did in its declaration of 2 September 2008, to arm themselves with warning systems and to conclude cooperation agreements to achieve cross-border trigger mechanisms.
In addition, you have also very generously created a budget line to encourage Member States to create these mechanisms, or at least to create links between themselves to deal with ‘kidnap alerts’. We know that a ‘kidnap alert’ can be very effective if it is triggered quickly. Now, before the European Parliament, I would lay particular stress on the horror that is child kidnapping, often carried out for the purposes of pornography.
I would again like to thank the European Parliament for its support in the struggle to protect children. I would also add that I have noted the speeches on data protection during legal procedures involving children. I cannot go on any longer, but I would stress that in March, we will attempt to give the European Union an exemplary legal framework in accordance with the most stringent standards of child protection.
I am trying to be as clear as I can: I would point out that we are going to review the framework decision dealing with child protection. We wish to improve its contents to bring child protection in the European Union up to the level of the highest international standards, particularly the new 2007 Council of Europe Convention, and best national practices.
In terms of criminal investigations, the legislative proposal will include new criminal offences to deal with the new forms of abuse which are being facilitated by new technologies. It will be easier to carry out investigations and bring charges. I will say no more on this. As for helping victims, we will make it easier for them to gain access to justice.
Furthermore, and especially, we will organise prevention by managing offenders on the basis of an individual diagnosis and a risk assessment for each offender. In addition, we will try to prevent and minimise the risks of repeat offending and introduce measures to ensure the optimum effectiveness of safety mechanisms in the entire Union. In this respect, the ECRIS system, which will allow the networking of criminal records, will be very valuable.
I have also had questions on extraterritoriality. We will also take the opportunity to propose more restrictive measures at this level to prosecute crimes of sexual exploitation committed in third countries by citizens of EU countries, even if the third country in which the crime is committed is unable to do so.
That is the current thinking. Obviously, Mrs Angelilli, we will follow all the recommendations in your report most carefully as we develop this framework directive.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to say to Parliament that it is not enough to have a good legal framework. There is also a need for tools. This is why, at European level, around Europol, we are trying to build a platform which can be used to bring together information gathered in the Member States and distribute reports and statistics from the national platforms. Several EU countries have such platforms, but now there is a need at Community level to ensure that everyone can be familiar with all this information. In this matter, the European Union can offer added value, provided that we can succeed in creating this platform around Europol.
I would also say that we have a further tool in which I have a lot of faith, in other words, the informal public-private group created by the Commission, which has introduced a European financial coalition against commercial child pornography images. In the face of a quadrupling in the number of sites between 2003 and 2007, we have to involve the private sector, as it controls a large part of the IT infrastructures. In particular, the access providers have to be mobilised. This is fundamental.
The coalition will bring together all of the stakeholders: non-governmental organisations, banks, companies that issue credit cards, online payment organisations, Internet service providers and other private operators with an Internet presence. It will set about locating and confiscating the profits made from criminal activities. This is a major factor in bringing an end to a number of commercial practices which are exploiting such child pornography."@en1
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