19.2.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 65/16

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having regard to its decision of 14 March 2012 on setting up a special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering, its powers, numerical composition and term of office, adopted under Rule 184 of its Rules of Procedure,

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having regard to its decision of 11 December 2012 whereby the term of office of the Special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering is to be extended until 30 September 2013,

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having regard to Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union, to Article 67 and Part Three, Title V, Chapter 4 (Articles 82-86) and Chapter 5 (Articles 87-89) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and to the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights, in particular Articles 5, 6, 8, 32, 38, and 41, Title VI (Articles 47-50), and Article 52 thereof,

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having regard to the Council Conclusions on the creation and implementation of an EU policy cycle for organised and serious international crime, setting up a multi-annual process that aims at tackling the most important criminal threats in a coherent manner through optimum cooperation between Member States, the EU and third countries,

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having regard to the Council conclusions on setting the EU's priorities for the fight against organised crime between 2011 and 2013,

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having regard to the Stockholm Programme on freedom, security and justice (1), the Commission communication ‘Delivering an area of freedom, security and justice for Europe's citizens — Action Plan Implementing the Stockholm Programme’ (COM(2010)0171) and the Commission communication ‘The EU internal security strategy in action: Five steps towards a more secure Europe’ (COM(2010)0673),

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having regard to the EU Drugs Strategy (2005-2012) and the EU Drugs Action Plan for 2009-2012,

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having regard to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, adopted by the General Assembly on 15 November 2000 (resolution 55/25) and opened for signature in Palermo on 12 December 2000, and the protocols thereto,

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having regard to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), opened for signature in Merida on 9 December 2003,

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having regard to the UN Convention against illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, adopted by the General Assembly on 20 December 1988 (resolution 1988/8) and opened for signature in Vienna, from 20 December 1988 to 28 February 1989, and thereafter in New York, until 20 December 1989,

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having regard to the Council of Europe criminal and civil law conventions on corruption, opened for signature in Strasbourg on 27 January 1999 and 4 November 1999 respectively, and to resolutions (98) 7 and (99) 5, adopted by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on 5 May 1998 and 1 May 1999 respectively, establishing the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO),

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having regard to the Council Act of 26 May 1997 drawing up, on the basis of Article K.3(2)(c) of the Treaty on European Union, the Convention on the fight against corruption involving officials of the European Communities or officials of Member States of the European Union (2),

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having regard to the OECD Convention on Combating the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, opened for signature in Paris on 17 December 1997, and to the recommendations supplementing it,

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having regard to the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism, opened for signature in Warsaw on 16 May 2005, and to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ Resolution CM/Res(2010)12 of 13 October 2010 on the Statute of the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL),

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having regard to the 40 recommendations and 9 special recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation,

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having regard to the work of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS),

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having regard to Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime (3),

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having regard to Council Framework Decision 2001/500/JHA of 26 June 2001 on money laundering, the identification, tracing, freezing, seizing and confiscation of instrumentalities and the proceeds of crime (4), Council Framework Decision 2003/577/JHA of 22 July 2003 on the execution in the European Union of orders freezing property or evidence (5), Council Framework Decision 2005/212/JHA of 24 February 2005 on Confiscation of Crime-Related Proceeds, Instrumentalities and Property (6), and Council Framework Decision 2006/783/JHA of 6 October 2006 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to confiscation orders (7),

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having regard to Council Decision 2007/845/JHA of 6 December 2007 concerning cooperation between Asset Recovery Offices of the Member States in the field of tracing and identification of proceeds from, or other property related to, crime (8) and having regard to Commission report COM(2011)0176 based on Article 8 of that decision,

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having regard to Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States (9), and the subsequent amending acts,

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having regard to Council Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA of 13 June 2002 on joint investigation teams (10) and to the Commission report on national measures taken to comply with that framework decision (COM(2004)0858),

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having regard to Council Decision 2009/902/JHA of 30 November 2009 setting up a European crime prevention network (EUCPN) (11),

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having regard to Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA (12) and to the Communication from the Commission ‘The EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012–2016’ (COM(2012)0286),

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having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the fact that the best interests of children involved in trafficking and migration cases, should always take primary concern,

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having regard to Directive 2011/93/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13th December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (13),

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having regard to Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (14) and to the Commission report to Parliament and the Council on the application of that directive (COM(2012)0168),

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having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1889/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on controls of cash entering or leaving the Community (15),

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having regard to Regulation (EC) No 273/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 on drug precursors (16),

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having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006 on information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds (17),

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having regard to Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA of 22 July 2003 on combating corruption in the private sector (18) and to the Commission report to the Council based on Article 9 of that framework decision (COM(2007)0328),

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having regard to Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal service sectors (19), Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts, and the amendments thereto (20),

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having regard to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data,

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having regard to Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA (21),

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having regard to the Commission’s proposal (COM(2013)0045) for a directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing,

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having regard to the Commission’s proposal (COM(2012)0085) for a directive on the freezing and confiscation of proceeds of crime in the European Union,

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having regard to the Commission’s proposal (COM(2010)0517) for a directive on attacks against information systems and repealing Council Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA,

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having regard to the Commission communication to the European Parliament and the Council entitled ‘An Action Plan to strengthen the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion’ (COM(2012)0722),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the European Parliament and the Council entitled ‘First Annual Report on the implementation of the EU Internal Security Strategy’ (COM(2011)0790),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament entitled ‘Tackling Crime in our Digital Age: Establishing a European Cybercrime Centre’ (COM(2012)0140),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions entitled ‘Towards a comprehensive European framework for online gambling’ (COM(2012)0596),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the European Parliament and the Council entitled ‘Measuring Crime in the EU: Statistics Action Plan 2011-2015’ (COM(2011)0713),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the European Parliament and the Council on concrete ways to reinforce the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion including in relation to third countries (COM(2012)0351),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions entitled ‘Towards an EU Criminal Policy: Ensuring the effective implementation of EU policies through criminal law’ (COM(2011)0573),

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having regard to the Commission report of 6 June 2011 to the Council on the modalities of European Union participation in the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) (COM(2011)0307),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the European Parliament and the Council entitled ‘Proceeds of organised crime: ensuring that “crime does not pay”’(COM(2008)0766),

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having regard to the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament on the prevention of and fight against organised crime in the financial sector (COM(2004)0262),

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having regard to the Commission Recommendation 2007/425/EC of 13 June 2007, identifying a set of actions for the enforcement of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein,

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having regard to its resolution of 8 March 2011 on ‘Tax and development — Cooperating with developing countries on promoting good governance in tax matters’ (22),

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having regard to its resolutions of 15 September 2011 on the EU's efforts to combat corruption (23), of 25 October 2011 on organised crime in the European Union (24) and 22 May 2012 on an EU approach to criminal law (25),

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having regard to its resolution of 17 November 2011 on combating illegal fishing at the global level — the role of the EU (26),

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having regard to the joint motion for a resolution of 14 March 2013 on match-fixing and corruption in sport (27),

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having regard to its resolution of 15 January 2013 with recommendations to the Commission on a Law of Administrative Procedure of the European Union (28),

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having regard to its resolution of 7 June 2005 with a proposal for a recommendation to the Council on combating the financing of terrorism (29),

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having regard to the Europol Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) report 2013,

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having regard to its resolution of 21 May 2013 on the fight against tax fraud, tax evasion and tax havens (30);

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having regard to the conclusions which have emerged from the public hearings, discussions on the working documents, and exchanges of views with eminent figures, as well as from the delegation visits made by Parliament’s Special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering,

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having regard to the replies to the questionnaire sent to the national parliaments on their role and experience regarding organised crime, corruption, and money laundering,

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having regard to the thematic papers by Inés Ayala Sender, Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra, Emma McClarkin, and Gay Mitchell on organised crime,

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having regard to the thematic papers by Cornelis de Jong, Mariya Gabriel, Theodoros Skylakakis, and Barbara Weiler on corruption,

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having regard to the thematic papers by Mario Borghezio and Rui Tavares on money laundering,

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having regard to Rule 48 of its Rules of Procedure,

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having regard to the interim report of the Special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering (A7-0175/2013),

A.

whereas the Special Committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering (CRIM) was mandated to investigate the extent of organised crime, corruption and money laundering supported by the best available threat assessments and to propose appropriate measures for the EU to prevent and address these threats and to counter them at the international, European and national level;

B.

whereas traditional criminal organisations have gradually extended their operating range on an international scale, exploiting the opportunities offered by the opening of the internal borders of the European Union, as well as economic globalisation and new technologies, and entering into alliances with criminal groups in other countries (examples being the South American drug cartels and Russian-speaking organised crime) in order to carve up markets and spheres of influence; whereas, increasingly, criminal groups are diversifying in their operations, with links growing between drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, facilitation of irregular immigration and weapons trafficking; whereas the link between terrorism and organised crime is becoming increasingly organic;

C.

whereas the global economic crisis not only creates a breeding-ground for enhanced illegal activities by certain individuals, but also leads to new types of organised criminal activity, such as fraud and corruption in professional sport, counterfeiting of everyday consumer goods such as foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, illegal trade in cheap labour, and human trafficking; whereas by infiltrating the legal economy, organised crime, fraud and money laundering have a devastating effect on Member States;

D.

whereas it is very rare for an organised crime group not to have a crossborder dimension and this is the greatest invisible threat to the security and prosperity of European citizens, who have not been informed about the explosive increase in crossborder crime or the inability of national law enforcement authorities to counter it other than within their own national borders;

E.

whereas criminal organisations have been tending increasingly to rely on mutual assistance enabling them — also through their new international structures and the diversification of their activities — to transcend their differences in terms of language, ethnic origin, and commercial interests and engage in joint trafficking, thereby reducing costs and maximising profits at a time of world economic crisis;

F.

whereas Europol's SOCTA 2013 estimates that there are at least 3 600 criminal organisations currently active in the EU and acknowledges that the most widespread features of these organisations are their network style and cooperative approach, their strong presence in the international legal economy, their tendency to focus on — especially in the larger organisations — different criminal activities at the same time and the fact that as many as 70 % of existing organisations have members of different nationalities, thereby demonstrating the transnational nature of the phenomenon;

G.

whereas poverty constitutes an enabler for organised crime as poverty is exploited by criminal organisations;

H.

whereas it is essential to eliminate poverty and to improve people’s access to employment and social protection;

I.

whereas operations involving trafficking in human beings and human organs, forced prostitution, the enslavement of human beings and or the establishment of forced labour camps are often run by transnational criminal organisations; whereas it is necessary and urgent to consistently monitor international organ trafficking and its connections with criminal organisations; whereas human trafficking is a form of crime and a fast-changing phenomenon which generates profits in the region of EUR 25 billion every year and affects all Member States;

J.

whereas the total number of forced labourers in the Member States is estimated at 880 000, of whom 30 % are estimated to be victims of sexual exploitation and 70 % victims of forced labour exploitation, with women constituting the majority of victims in the EU; whereas forced labour is highly profitable for organised crime, results in social dumping and damages society through lost tax revenue;

K.

whereas the victims of human trafficking originate from both within and outside the EU;

L.

whereas the victims of trafficking in human beings are recruited, transported or kept by means of force, coercion or fraud for purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, including begging, slavery, servitude, criminal activities, domestic service, adoption or forced marriage, or for the removal of organs; whereas these victims are exploited and totally subjugated by their traffickers or exploiters, obliged to repay them huge debts, often deprived of their identity papers, locked in, isolated and threatened, and thus, living in fear of retaliation, with no money and with fear of the local authorities instilled into them, lose any hope of escaping or returning to normal life;

M.

whereas sealing the external borders of the EU is impossible;

N.

whereas 2 000 people die every year in the Mediterranean while attempting to enter the EU;

O.

whereas, although trafficking in human beings evolves with changing socio-economic circumstances, the victims come mainly from countries or regions which are subject to economic and social hardship and the vulnerability factors have not changed for years; whereas the other causes of trafficking in human beings include a booming sex industry as well as demand for cheap labour and products, while the common factor for those who become victims of trafficking is, in general terms, the promise of a better quality of life and existence for themselves and/or their families;

P.

whereas illicit trafficking in and smuggling of organs, arms, drugs, including CBRN substances and precursors as well as prescription drugs, wildlife species and body parts, cigarettes and tobacco, works of art, and other products stem from a variety of sources, supply new criminal markets all over Europe, offers criminal organisations enormous opportunities for profit, and challenge- the EU’s and Member States’ border security, as well as the single market and the EU’s financial interests;

Q.

whereas criminal groups have widened the range of drug-trafficking routes and, moreover, started trafficking in other commodities; whereas the internet provides a tool and a new route both in the supply of precursors for drug production and in the distribution of psychotropic substances; whereas the trade in drug precursors such as ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and acetic anhydride is not adequately controlled in the Union and presents a serious danger;

R.

whereas the control of precursor chemicals and equipment used in synthetic drug manufacture is a key element in reducing drug supply;

S.

whereas chemicals used for licit purposes can be diverted from the licit trade by criminal organisations and be used as drug precursors; whereas in 2008, 75 % of global seizures of acetic anhydride, the main drug precursor for heroin, occurred in the EU, while the annual reports of the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board continue to make reference to the insufficiently strict measures put in place by the EU to avert the diversion of this precursor chemical for illicit purposes;

T.

whereas many Union citizens are living in poverty and unemployment while crossborder crime increases year by year;

U.

whereas the number of legitimate jobs in the Union lost to illegal activity by criminal gangs cannot be calculated accurately, since criminals do not publish reports, but may be estimated in tens of millions;

V.

whereas the loss of tax revenues to national governments and the Union can, similarly, only be estimated, but is probably in the range of hundreds of billions of euro each year and is increasing;

W.

whereas illegal trafficking in cigarettes results in an annual tax loss of approximately EUR 10 billion; whereas the estimated turnover generated by global small arms trafficking ranges between USD 170 million and 320 million a year, while there are more than 10 million illegal weapons in circulation in Europe, posing a serious threat to the safety of citizens as well as to law enforcement; whereas trafficking in the above items can entail losses to state revenues and damage to manufacturing companies, and facilitates the spread of other forms of organised crime which in turn create a serious social threat, since this phenomenon could easily become a source of terrorist financing;

X.

whereas the sums generated by trafficking in wildlife species and body parts are estimated at EUR 18 to 26 billion per year, with the EU being the world’s foremost destination market;

Y.

whereas trafficking entails losses to state revenue, damages manufacturing companies and has a detrimental effect on jobs, the public and the social environment;

Z.

whereas criminal organisations have developed their infiltration capacity, since they are now operating in, for example, public works, transport, large-scale retailing, waste management, trade in wildlife and natural resources, private security, adult entertainment and many more sectors besides, most of which are subject to political control and decision-making; whereas, consequently, organised crime is increasingly resembling an economic global player with a strong business orientation, enabling it to supply different kinds of illegal — but also, to an increasing extent, legal — goods and services at the same time and impacting upon the European and global economy, at a cost to business of USD 870 billion annually;

AA.

whereas the organised and mafia-style criminal activities relating to the environment — in their various forms of illegal waste trafficking and disposal and destruction of the environmental, landscape, artistic and cultural heritage — have now taken on an international dimension that requires a joint effort on the part of all European countries for more effective joint action to prevent and combat the so-called ecomafias;

AB.

whereas the huge amounts of money generated by organised crime and mafia networks are channelled into banks and financial markets in the EU itself, thereby making them accessories to money laundering;

AC.

whereas international banks play a significant role in enabling money laundering and have directly been involved in laundering the proceeds of organised crime;

AD.

whereas the SOCTA report published by Europol in 2013 points out that commodity counterfeiting and illicit trade in goods constitute an emerging criminal market that is intensified by the economic crisis; whereas drug trafficking remains the biggest criminal market; whereas the illicit trade in waste and energy fraud are new emerging threats demanding particular attention;

AE.

whereas if organised crime in all its forms is to be combated effectively, it is essential to develop and implement measures aimed at depriving criminal organisations of their financial resources by striking at bank secrecy wherever necessary;

AF.

whereas criminal organisations can take advantage of a grey area of collusion with other parties, merging for the purpose of certain operations with white-collar perpetrators (entrepreneurs, public officials at all levels of decision-making, politicians, banks, professionals, etc), who, while not actually belonging to criminal organisations, have mutually lucrative business relations with them;

AG.

whereas in some European countries which are not EU Member States a large part of society remains in a grey area, often living off criminal activities; whereas this mainly involves young people;

AH.

whereas in addition to using violence, intimidation and terrorism, organised crime now also operates through corruption; whereas money laundering is linked not only to activities typically associated with organised crime, but also to corruption and tax crimes; whereas conflicts of interest can be a cause of corruption and fraud; whereas, therefore, organised crime, corruption, and money laundering, though distinct phenomena, are often interrelated; whereas organised crime can also use public and private sector organisations, including non-profit organisations, as cover for corruption and money-laundering purposes;

AI.

whereas investigative journalists play a vital role in revealing corruption, fraud and organised crime and consequently they are exposed to particular financial and security threats; whereas, for instance, over a period of five years within the 27 Member States a total of 233 investigative reporting have been published on cases of fraud related to the misuse of EU funds (31); whereas additional funding, in particular by the Commission and other international institutions, is indispensable for supporting and further enhancing investigative journalism;

AJ.

whereas money laundering, corruption and organised crime perpetrated by European actors seriously affect developing countries and represent an obstacle to their development by plundering their natural resources, by limiting their fiscal resources and by increasing their public debt;

AK.

whereas the internet makes it possible for criminal groups to act more rapidly and on a larger scale, and has thus changed the patterns of criminal activity; whereas cybercrime, especially in the forms of fraud and exploitation of children, is a growing threat, while criminal organisations are using online betting on sport as a tool for generating profits and laundering money around the globe;

AL.

whereas match-fixing is a new form of crime with high revenues, low sentences and, due to low detection rates, is a lucrative business for criminals;

AM.

whereas the protection of citizens and a lawful and competitive economy depend on political will at all levels, as well as on resolute measures to combat organised crime, trafficking in human beings, corruption, and money laundering, phenomena which are severely detrimental to society and, in particular, constitute a threat to the survival of law-abiding businesspeople, to the safety of citizens and consumers and to the fundamental democratic principles of the state;

AN.

whereas criminal groups exploit modern technology, environments and opportunities mirroring legitimate business opportunities and goals; whereas criminal groups have high levels of expertise, organisation, experience and sophistication, backed up by increased mobility, connectivity and ease of travel; whereas this has led to organised crime being less localised and more likely to exploit differing legal systems and differing national legal jurisdictions;

AO.

whereas the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that the proceeds of illegal activities worldwide account for about 3,6 % of global GDP, while the flow of laundered money in the world today amounts to approximately 2,7 % of global GDP; whereas the Commission estimates that in the EU alone corruption costs roughly EUR 120 billion a year, that is to say, 1 % of EU GDP; whereas substantial resources are thus being stolen from economic and social development, public finances and citizens’ welfare;

AP.

whereas the proceeds of illegal activities and money-laundering networks have a negative impact on the EU economy by encouraging speculation and financial bubbles which are harmful to the real economy;

AQ.

whereas in some countries corruption poses a serious threat to democracy and is an obstacle to efficient and just governance; whereas it discourages investment, distorts the operation of domestic markets, impedes fair competition among businesses, and, ultimately, jeopardises economic development by misallocating resources, especially to the detriment of public services in general and social services in particular; whereas bureaucratic complexity, compounded by multiple unnecessary prior authorisation requirements, can discourage entrepreneurship, hamper legitimate economic activity and provide incentives for bribing officials or engender other forms of corruption;

AR.

whereas differences in legislation and enforcement in respect of bribery of public officials negatively affect the internal market, not only because there is no level playing field for companies but also because such bribery occurs within the EU as well, when companies based in one Member State bribe public officials of another Member State, thus disrupting the functioning of markets;

AS.

whereas corruption is perceived by 74 % of European citizens to be a major national and supranational problem, (32) while cases of corruption apparently occur within all sectors of society; whereas corruption undermines citizens’ confidence in democratic institutions and the effectiveness of elected governments in preserving the rule of law, since it creates privileges and hence social injustice; whereas distrust of politicians is heightened in times of dire economic crisis;

AT.

whereas the areas in which reported petty corruption is higher, in terms of percentage of bribe cases per contact, are on average: medical services 6,2 %, land services 5 %, customs 4,8 %, judiciary 4,2 %, police 3,8 %, registry and permit services 3,8 %, education system 2,5 %, utilities 2,5 %, tax revenue 1,9 %;

AU.

whereas in areas with high levels of crime, the resources of the local economy are unlawfully appropriated by criminal organisations and normal business ambitions, including investment from other countries, are thus discouraged; whereas in such areas credit is more difficult to obtain for ‘clean’ companies, given the higher costs and more stringent guarantees that banks require; whereas businesses in economic difficulty are sometimes forced to turn to criminal organisations in order to obtain credit for investments;

AV.

whereas localised organised criminals take advantages of gaps in the legal economy and can become major players in supplying everyday goods; whereas, in addition to extortion and intimidation, which constitute threats to local communities, this undermines the legal economy and the community as a whole, in terms of the safety of businesses and citizens; whereas cybercrime, counterfeiting of or illegal online trafficking in creative content, child pornography, pharmaceutical products, legal psychotropic substances and drug precursors, components, spare parts, and other products in common everyday use as well as issues related to the relevant rights and licences are endangering public health, safety, jobs and social stability and can inflict massive damage on businesses in the sectors concerned, to an extent that puts their continued existence at risk;

AW.

whereas the increasing number of crimes being perpetrated against the agri-food sector are not only seriously endangering the health of European citizens but also causing considerable damage to those countries that have made food excellence their major asset;

AX.

whereas the sexual exploitation of children via the internet and child pornography pose a particular threat; whereas cybercrime, and in particular profit-motivated cybercrime and unauthorised access to information systems, are often linked to financial fraud; whereas Cybercrime as a Service (CaaS) is increasing and the amount of malware is rising dramatically; whereas the European bodies concerned with these issues require further funding;

AY.

whereas money laundering is assuming increasingly more complex forms that are not easily traceable; whereas in order to launder dirty money criminal organisations are making increasing use of illegal, and sometimes legal, betting and match-fixing, especially online, as well as of banks in countries where money transfers are not monitored sufficiently to prevent money laundering and tax evasion; whereas match-fixing should be viewed as a profitable form of organised crime; whereas legal gambling, as an expression of entrepreneurial activity, should be supported on the basis of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality;

AZ.

whereas the forging of a company's accounting documents often serves to create unofficial liquidity, which reduces the amount of tax payable and can be used for corruption or money laundering, while impinging on fair competition and reducing the capacity of the state to perform its social function;

BA.

whereas in a time of austerity, tax fraud is estimated to cost Member States EUR 1 trillion per year; whereas tax avoidance and evasion is not limited to the black market but is found in the real economy amongst well known corporations;

BB.

whereas some work has already been done at European level with a view to creating a balanced regulatory and legal framework to deal with organised crime, corruption, and money laundering;

BC.

whereas, especially in the case of crossborder crime, the variety of approaches which Member States apply to crime and the differences in substantive and procedural criminal law can create loopholes and weaknesses in criminal, civil and fiscal legal systems throughout the European Union; whereas tax havens, countries pursuing loose banking policies and breakaway countries where a strong central authority is lacking have become essential to money laundering by organised crime;

BD.

whereas criminal groups often have an international network structure, therefore, this international structure requires a cross-border response, including effective and comprehensive communication and the sharing of information between equivalent national and international agencies;

BE.

whereas the protection of the EU’s financial interests and of the euro must be a priority in terms of monitoring the growing phenomenon by which criminal organisations are misappropriating European funds through what is termed ‘Community fraud’ and euro counterfeiting;

BF.

whereas programmes such as Hercule, Fiscalis, Customs and Pericles have been developed at the European level to protect the EU's financial interests and fight against transnational and cross-border criminal and illicit activities;

BG.

whereas the major enemy of the Eurozone is the divergence of productivity gains among the Member States; whereas these create, in the medium and long term, a divergence in terms of competitiveness that cannot be dealt with by monetary devaluation and leads to harsh and politically unsustainable austerity programs aimed at internal devaluation; whereas systemic corruption in the public sector, which acts as a major impediment for efficiency, foreign direct investment and innovation, is thus preventing the proper functioning of the monetary union;

BH.

whereas there are at least 20 million cases of petty corruption in the public sectors in the EU and it is obvious that the phenomenon also has a spill-over effect in the parts of the public administration of the Member States (and the corresponding political persons) which are responsible for the management of EU funds and other financial interests;

BI.

whereas there is a very substantial tax gap in Europe, an estimated EUR 1 trillion in public revenue is lost every year in the EU because of tax fraud and tax avoidance, representing a yearly cost of around EUR 2 000 to every EU citizen;

BJ.

whereas in order to fight organised crime legislators in the Member States must be able to react promptly and effectively to changing structures and new forms of crime, and even more so since under the Treaty of Lisbon all Member States are obliged to facilitate a Union of freedom, security and justice;

BK.

whereas the European approach to combating organised crime, corruption, and money laundering must be based on the best available threat assessments and on closer judicial and police cooperation, extending also to non-EU countries, common definitions of criminal offences — including participation in a criminal organisation and self-laundering -, criminalisation of all forms of corruption, approximation of Member States’ legislation concerning certain procedurally relevant arrangements such as statute of limitations, effective systems for the confiscation and recovery of proceeds of organised crime and corruption, increased accountability of government, politicians, lawyers, notaries, real estate agents, insurance companies and other businesses, training of judges and police forces, and the exchange of best practices relating to proper means of prevention;

BL.

whereas mutual recognition is recognised as a fundamental principle underpinning judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters between the EU's Member States;

BM.

whereas the fight against trafficking in human beings is a priority for the EU, as from the 1990s many initiatives, measures and funding programmes and a legal framework have been developed, and whereas Article 5 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits specifically trafficking in human beings;

BN.

whereas, for the Member States to cooperate in tackling crime and making justice systems work, there needs to be mutual trust between judicial authorities in the EU; whereas the principle of mutual trust requires the establishment of minimum protection standards at the highest possible level;

BO.

whereas the criminal law and criminal proceedings systems of the Member States have evolved over centuries; whereas each Member State has its own characteristics and special features and whereas, as a consequence, key areas of criminal law must be left to the Member States;

BP.

having regard to the substantive difference between witnesses and informers; having regard to the duty of the Member States and the European Union to protect and safeguard those who have chosen to stand against organised crime and the mafia, endangering their lives and those of their loved ones;

BQ.

whereas, although tendering for Public Procurement is heavily monitored, the spending afterwards is far from transparent and there is a wide variety across Member States for declaration of interests;

1.

Considers it necessary to prepare an appropriate political response to combat the presence of criminal organisations and mafias at EU level by means of a detailed and timely action plan that lays down legislative and non-legislative measures aimed at dismantling those organisations and identifying and recovering any form of wealth that, directly or indirectly, is connected to them;

2.

Is convinced that in order to defeat organised and Mafia-style crime and to eradicate phenomena such as corruption and money laundering which, taken together, restrict the freedom, rights and safety of EU citizens and those of future generations, it is necessary not only to react to such criminal activity but also to make major efforts to prevent it;

3.

Calls on the Commission to propose common judicial standards and models for integration and cooperation among Member States; calls on it in particular, on the basis of an evaluation report on the implementation of the Framework Decision on the fight against organised crime and building on Member States’ most advanced legislation, to submit a legislative proposal setting out a common definition of organised crime, which should include, inter alia, the offence of participation in a mafia-style organisation, emphasising the fact that criminal groups of this kind are business-oriented and wield a power of intimidation and taking into account Article 2(a) of the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime; stresses that proposals for EU substantive criminal law provisions must respect fundamental rights and the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, as well as the positions of Parliament’s resolution of 22 May 2012 on an EU approach to criminal law;

4.

Calls on the Commission to draw up a common definition of corruption in order to develop a coherent global policy against corruption; recommends that, when drawing up its report on action taken by Member States against corruption, due to be published in 2013, the Commission should cover all forms of corruption, in both the public and the private sector, including non-profit organisations, highlighting the best national experiences in combating it, and should provide an accurate way of measuring the phenomenon, to include a comprehensive overview of vulnerable areas of corruption on a country-by-country basis; calls on the Commission to report regularly to Parliament as well as to the Conference of the States Parties to UNCAC on actions taken both by Member States and at EU level, and to update the existing European legislation accordingly;

5.

Maintains that an effective regulatory framework should duly take into account the interaction between anti-money laundering provisions and the fundamental right to the protection of personal data, so that money laundering is addressed without lowering established data protection standards; in this regard, welcomes the data protection system used by Europol;

6.

Calls on the Commission to provide in its proposal to harmonise criminal law on money laundering, due to be submitted in 2013, a common definition of the offence of self-laundering based on Member States’ best practices, and to consider as predicate offences those offences which are deemed serious as being likely to deliver a profit to the persons committing them.

7.

Calls on the Commission to make a proposal developing Article 18 of the Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) Directive which encourages Member States to criminalise the use of services of victims of all forms of exploitation of human trafficking, both concerning sexual and labour exploitation;

8.

Considers that the conditions and devastating consequences suffered by the victims of trafficking in human beings are unacceptable and constitute a criminal violation of human rights; calls, therefore, on the Commission and the Member States, to make trafficking socially anathema through strong and sustained awareness-raising campaigns with clear and scheduled reduction targets; these campaigns should be evaluated annually in the framework of the European Anti-Trafficking Day on 18 October every year, as well as after five years, between now and the European Anti-Trafficking Year;

9.

Recommends that the Member States, in cooperation with the Commission and the European Parliament and with the support of Europol, Eurojust and the Fundamental Rights Agency, devise EU-level indicators, which should be as uniform and consistent as possible, to measure, at least, the extent and costs of and social harm caused by organised crime, corruption and money laundering occurring in the EU;

10.

Calls on the Commission and the Council to consider establishing an EU list of criminal organisations, following the example of the EU list of organisations considered to be terrorist organisations;

11.

Recommends that a European network be established to bring together the various universities dealing with organised crime, corruption and money laundering in order to promote university research in these areas;

12.

Points to the need for the full implementation of the existing mutual recognition instruments and for European legislation providing for the enforceability of criminal judgments and confiscation orders in Member States other than those in which they were issued; considers that mutual legal assistance and the mutual admissibility of evidence between Member States should be improved;

13.

Believes that actions to combat trafficking in human beings and forced labour need to focus on the root causes such as global inequalities; calls, therefore, on Member States to live up to their development aid and MDG commitments;

14.

Calls on the Commission and on the EEAS to strengthen the external dimension of measures and programmes, including bilateral agreements, to fight against human trafficking by preventive actions in the countries of origin and transit with special attention to unaccompanied minors and children;

15.

Calls on the Commission to develop a reliable monitoring system across the EU, to more effectively monitor the movements of traffickers and the victims of trafficking;

16.

Calls on the Commission to develop, as a matter of urgency, a comparable and reliable EU-wide data collection system, based on agreed and solid common indicators, together with both the Member States and the international institutions involved in the fight against human trafficking; in order to raise the visibility and urgency of this data system, it could be useful to set up an Anti-Trafficking Observatory within the EU Anti-Trafficking website that is already in place, with all EU institutions and the seven agencies involved being obliged to introduce their data and NGOs and other institutions being invited to do the same;

17.

Calls on the Commission to implement the recommendations outlined in the EU strategy towards the eradication of trafficking in Human Beings 2012-2016;

18.

Calls on the Commission to fulfil the conditions needed for completing the European helpline for victims of trafficking, to help spread awareness of their rights;

19.

Calls on the Commission to devote more resources to combating the use of social networking and cybercrime in human trafficking;

20.

Calls on the Commission to increase cross border judicial and police cooperation between EU Member States and EU Agencies, given that the criminal offence of human trafficking is not limited to one Member State;

21.

Calls for a strengthening of sanctions against banking and financial institutions which are complicit in receiving and/or laundering the proceeds of organised crime;

22.

As regards confiscation, invites Member States, on the basis of the most advanced national legislations, to consider to implement models of civil law asset forfeiture, in those cases where, on the balance of probabilities and subject to the permission of a court, it can be established that assets result from criminal activities, or are used for criminal activities; considers that preventive models of confiscation could be foreseen following to a court decision, in compliance with constitutional national guarantees and without prejudice to the right of property and the right of defence; moreover encourages Member States to promote the use of criminal assets for social purposes; suggests that actions should be undertaken and funds released to finance protective measures in order to preserve confiscated assets intact;

23.

Recommends that an economic operator should be excluded for at least five years from participation in any public contract throughout the EU if that operator has been the subject of a conviction by final judgment for participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering or terrorist financing, participation in exploitation of human trafficking or child labour, corruption or any other serious offence against the public interest wherever such offences cause a loss in tax revenue or social harm, or for any other particularly serious crime with a crossborder dimension as referred to in Article 83(1) TFEU (‘Eurocrimes’), and that the above provision should apply even when the grounds for exclusion arise in the course of the award procedure; considers that procedures for public procurement must be based on the principle of legality, and also that, in that framework, the criterion of the economically most advantageous tender should be defined in order to ensure transparency (to be achieved not least through e-procurement) and prevent frauds corruption and other serious irregularities; calls on the Commission’s services to establish a structure or cooperation schemes so as to ensure a holistic approach to fighting corruption offences related to public procurement;

24.

Notes existence of a link between legitimate and illicit business activities, since in some cases legitimate interests provide resources for illicit activities; emphasises that monitoring the flow of legitimate interests can help identify criminal assets;

25.

Considers that, in order to combat drug trafficking, as well as other offences which are expressions of organised crime, action by judicial and police authorities should be able to benefit not only from cooperation with Eurojust and Europol, but also from cooperation arrangements, without prejudice to their duties of confidentiality, with businesses in the transport and logistics sectors, the chemical industry, internet service providers, and banks and financial services, in both Member States and non-EU countries; emphasises the importance of tackling the supply of drugs through strict controls on drug precursors, and welcomes the Commission proposal amending Regulation (EC) No 273/2004, which sets out ways to improve the prevention of diversion from the internal EU trade in acetic anhydride, for example, by extending the registration requirement for this product;

26.

Expresses concern about the ineffectiveness of the investigative tools made available in different national legal systems, which do not take due account of the need for an appropriate and specific set of tools with which to combat criminal and mafia organisations; reiterates its request to the Commission, already expressed in its resolution of 25 October 2011, that a comparative study of the special investigative techniques currently used in the different Member States be developed, to provide a basis for action at EU level, with the aim of equipping the authorities responsible with the investigative tools they need, based on existing best practices;

27.

Invites the Commission, the Member States and businesses to take practical steps to improve the traceability of products (e.g. country of origin labelling for agri-food products, C.I.P. proof marks on firearms, or digital codes for the tax identification of cigarettes, alcoholic drinks and prescription drugs) in order to protect consumers’ health, enhance citizens’ safety, discourage smuggling and combat illicit trafficking more effectively; regrets that the Member States did not wish to introduce traceability in the modernisation of the Union Customs Code;

28.

Calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up their maritime cooperation with a view to stamping out trafficking in human beings and the flows of drugs and illegal or counterfeit products across the EU’s internal and external sea borders; acknowledges that border management also implies a migration dimension related to the fundamental rights of migrants, including, where appropriate, the right to asylum, as well as protection of and assistance to victims of human trafficking or forced labour, especially minors;

29.

Considers that an action plan aiming at a Europe-wide legislative framework for criminal justice and the introduction of operational tools to combat cybercrime must be developed without further delay, with a view to achieving greater international cooperation and with the support of the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), in order to ensure a high level of security for citizens — especially vulnerable persons — , businesses and public authorities while not prejudicing freedom of information and data protection;

30.

Notes with concern the significant link that has been highlighted by the judicial authorities and police between organised crime and terrorism in terms of the financing of the illegal activities of terrorist groups via the proceeds of illicit trafficking at international level; calls on the Member States to strengthen their measures to combat these activities;

31.

Given that organised crime uses the cyberspace and its illegitimate tools ever more extensively, calls on the Member States to adopt their national cyber security strategies without any further delay;

32.

Calls on the Commission to develop an EU Charter for Protection and Assistance of Victims of Trafficking in order to gather all existing indicators, measures, programmes and resources in a more coherent, efficient and useful way for all stakeholders involved with the objective to strengthen the protection of the victims; calls on the Commission to set up a helpline for victims of trafficking in human beings;

33.

Reminds the Commission that special treatment should be given to children who are victims of trafficking, as well as to improve the protection of unaccompanied minors or trafficked children by their own families (cases to be taken into account when proposing return to countries of origin, identification of guardians, etc.); insists on the need to take into account not only the gender specific approach but also the role of health problems and disabilities;

34.

Calls on the Commission to increase the resources allocated to specialised NGOs, media and research in order to step up support, protection and assistance for victims so that their testimony in court becomes less necessary; calls on the Commission also to reinforce the aspects of visibility, awareness-raising and victims’ needs, with the aim of reducing the demand for and abuse of victims of trafficking in human beings and promoting a ‘zero vision’ against sexual and labour exploitation;

35.

Calls on the Commission to develop a system of more efficient and proactive financial investigation, as a key means of reducing the pressure on victims of human trafficking as the main witnesses when traffickers are brought to trial; also calls on the Commission to dedicate improved specialised training and sufficient resources to the EU agencies fighting against human trafficking, including crossborder cooperation and cooperation beyond borders; reminds the Commission that these actions require a holistic approach, promoting multidisciplinary cooperation at local, national and transnational level and encouraging Member States to set up, inter alia, dedicated national police intelligence units and to stimulate cooperation between administrative and law enforcement authorities;

36.

Stresses the importance of intensifying cooperation and enhancing transparency by developing effective communication and information sharing between judicial and law enforcement agencies among Member States, Europol, Eurojust, OLAF, and ENISA, and with the corresponding authorities in non-EU countries and especially the EU’s neighbouring countries, with a view to improving systems for gathering evidence and to enabling data and information relevant to the investigation of offences, including those against the EU’s financial interests, to be processed and exchanged effectively, without in any way infringing the subsidiarity and proportionality principles or fundamental rights in the Union; in this regard, calls on the competent authorities in the Member States to apply the adopted instruments on judicial cooperation in criminal matters, which are important tools for ensuring an effective fight against crossborder organised crime; calls on the Commission to set up a roadmap for even closer judicial and police cooperation, creating a criminal investigative body and having investigative jurisdiction over violations and crimes in the EU;

37.

Calls on the Commission to consider, in its association and trade agreements with third countries, specific cooperation clauses with regard to combating illegal trafficking by organised crime and money laundering; notes the lack of international cooperation, especially with non-EU countries of transit or origin; recognises the need for strong diplomatic action to urge those countries to contract cooperation agreements or to comply with the agreements that they have signed; stresses the importance of the mechanism of letters rogatory;

38.

Stresses that the existing network of national anti-corruption contact points should be strengthened and assisted by EUROPOL, EUROJUST and CEPOL; underlines that it should serve not only as a place for exchange of information but that these contact points should also be used for improving bilateral cooperation in concrete cases of bribery of foreign public officials; recommends that the contact points should address differences in priority-setting, resources and expertise and signal any problems stemming from these differences; stresses that the network should encourage coordinated actions if the actual bribery has occurred in one Member State at the level of a subsidiary of a parent company or holding company established in another Member State;

39.

Calls on the Member States to implement existing EU legislation swiftly and fully to enable the Union to take concerted action to combat crime;

40.

Calls upon all Member States to commit themselves to making full use of the Europol and Eurojust agencies, whose operation and results, regardless of the reforms under way and improvements that need to be made, are highly dependent on the level of participation;

41.

Stresses that, in order to fight against organised crime, it is essential to have a grass-roots approach to fighting corruption and organised crime at a European level, including the training and involvement of officers and Chiefs of Police, especially with regard to awareness of emerging and less visible types of criminal activity; notes that local crime often feeds into international crime;

42.

Calls on the Member States to develop guidelines on enforcement in respect to corruption and money laundering; recommends that these guidelines consist of best practices (e.g., the need for specialised personnel, co-operation between investigative authorities and the judiciary, methods to overcome the often difficult gathering of evidence), of an indication of a critical level of human and other resources needed for effective prosecution and of measures facilitating international cooperation;

43.

considers it vitally important to fully exploit the existing synergy between the European Judicial Network and Eurojust, in order to achieve a very high level of intra-European judicial cooperation;

44.

Stresses the importance of consultation with regional and national law enforcement bodies and civil society when developing legislative and regulatory frameworks;

45.

Notes the importance of Member States in partnership with the European Union and international actors, having a strong, long-term strategic plan in local and global issues related to organised crime, in order to identify emerging threats, market vulnerabilities and risk factors and to create an EU strategy which is based on planning and not just response;

46.

Calls on the Member States and the Commission to strengthen the role of judges, prosecutors and liaison officers and to provide judicial training in order to enable them to tackle all forms of organised crime, corruption and money laundering, including cybercrime, in particular through the use of CEPOL and the European Judicial Training Network and by making full use of financial instruments such as the Internal Security Fund for police cooperation or the Hercules III Programme; suggests promoting the teaching of foreign languages as part of the training of police forces and the judiciary, in order to facilitate transnational cooperation; calls for support for a European best practice exchange and training programme for judges, prosecutors and police forces;

47.

Calls on the Member States and the Commission to continue common efforts to finalize the negotiations on the draft directive regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters, which simplifies evidence gathering in cross-border cases and is thus an important step on the way to the single area of freedom, security and justice;

48.

Calls for enhanced cooperation with regard to false documents and fraud, and for the relevant bodies to work together to improve the reliability and authentication of source documents;

49.

Advocates the establishment, at national level, of facilities devoted to the investigation into and combating of criminal and mafia organisations, with the possibility of developing — with the support of Europol — a streamlined, informal ‘anti-mafia operational network’ for the purpose of exchanging information on the structural connotations of existing mafias, criminal and financial projections, the location of assets and attempted infiltration of public procurement;

50.

Believes that the globalisation of organised crime requires stronger cooperation among Member States and at EU and international level; calls, as regards fighting organised crime, corruption, and money laundering, for the EU, the UN, the OECD, and the Council of Europe to interact to a greater degree with a view to policy integration and the formulation of common operational definitions; supports the efforts made by the FATF to promote anti-money laundering policies; urges the Member States to ratify and fully implement all existing international instruments; calls on the Commission to support effectively the Member States’ efforts to combat organised crime; recommends that the EU join GRECO as a full participant;

51.

Recommends joint action to prevent and combat illegal environment-related activities connected to or resulting from organised, mafia-style criminal activities, also by strengthening European bodies, such as Europol and Eurojust, and international ones, such as Interpol and UNICRI, as well as by sharing working methods and information held by the Member States that have been the most involved in the fight against this form of crime, with a view to developing a common action plan;

52.

Calls on the Council and the Member States to ratify and fully implement the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions; stresses the negative impact that bribery of foreign officials has on the Union's fundamental rights, environment and development policies;

53.

Maintains that the European Investigation Order (EIO) should be introduced and joint investigation teams and other systems for combating transnational organised crime should be strengthened; calls for a closer cooperation with EU neighbouring countries to fight organised crime entering the EU;

54.

Calls on the Member States to develop appropriate global information-sharing strategies within their intelligence services and analyses seeking to identify emerging organised crime trends;

55.

Strengthening cooperation on EU fraud between EU services at all state levels, including regional and municipal level which play a key role for managing EU funds;

56.

Believes that we cannot have an effective economic and fiscal union without an anti-corruption Union;

57.

Stresses that Transparency is the natural enemy of Corruption, which is how crimes start, and is convinced that holders of high offices or of great wealth with their privileges and immunities should be required to be totally transparent in their activities;

58.

Considers that, in addition to potentially marring the effectiveness of administrative action, a disorganised, non-transparent bureaucracy and complex procedures undermine the transparency of decision-making and frustrate the people concerned, and thus provide a fertile breeding ground for corruption; considers that, in the same way, impenetrable bank and business secrecy can hide the illicit profits of corruption, money laundering and organised crime;

59.

Refers to the Mérida convention against corruption (2003), and stresses that holders of high office or of great wealth with their privileges and immunities should be controlled, inter alia by the tax authorities, with such controls being reinforced in order to ensure fair and efficient services to the community and counter tax fraud; recommends, in particular, that holders of public office should submit declarations of assets, income, liabilities and interests; calls for measures to strengthen transparency and prevention through a coherent system of administrative law governing public spending and access to documents and the establishment of the necessary registers;

60.

Recommends that stronger systems be put in place to bring transparency to, and eliminate bureaucracy (‘red tape’) from government departments and other public bodies by guaranteeing the right of citizens to access documents (starting with the very sensitive area of public procurement); urges that a culture of legality and integrity be fostered in the public and the private sector alike, not least by means of an effective protection scheme for whistleblowers;

61.

Supports the actions of the Commission aimed at recognising the role of investigative journalism in the discovery and reporting of facts relating to organised crime, corruption and money laundering;

62.

Calls on the Member States to strengthen the role of officials in preventing, providing information on and tackling the risks of fraud and corruption;

63.

Calls for clear and proportionate rules, along with enforcement and monitoring mechanisms, to be specified in a code of conduct to prevent the phenomenon of ‘revolving doors’ or ‘pantouflage’, under which public officials occupying a certain level of managerial or financial responsibility would be forbidden to move to the private sector until a defined time has elapsed since their departure from service if there is a risk of a conflict of interest with their preceding public function; also considers that whenever there is a risk of a conflict of interest similar restrictions should apply to people moving from the private to the public sector;

64.

Calls on the Commission to submit a proposal on the law of administrative procedure of the European Union as soon as possible, in accordance with the European Parliament’s recommendations of 15 January 2013;

65.

Believes that a lobby register is a useful transparency instrument; calls on Member States to adopt this tool where it does not already exist; further encourages governments and public administrations to make registration in a lobby register a precondition for a meeting with a business-, interest-, or lobby-organisation;

66.

Points out that self-regulation as the normal mechanism for dealing with corruption in sports and sports betting has not been effective; emphasises that governments on national, regional and local level are some of the biggest funders of sport, calls for Member States to establish transparent working relationships with the sporting community and present a full independent inquiry into corruption in sports commissioned by national governing bodies;

67.

Considers the complete transparency of all administrative acts at all levels in the public sector to be a cornerstone for combating criminal activities and protecting citizens from all forms of mismanagement of public affairs; rejects any form of resistance on the part of public authorities with regard to the full monitoring by citizens and the press of activities carried out using public money and in the interest of the community; believes that both the EU and individual Member States should make a tangible commitment to ensuring full transparency and developing forms of open government in an effective manner and on the basis of existing best practices;

68.

Stresses that bribery should not be concealed by the abuse of the term ‘facilitation payments’, which the OECD Convention considers acceptable under certain, specific circumstances (small payments, e.g. to get permission to unload goods in a port); calls on the Member States to agree to reject this notion, or to use it only in extreme situations, and calls on the drawing up of guidelines interpreting the notion in a uniform manner throughout the EU; underlines that neither bribes, nor facilitation payments can be tax-deductible;

69.

Supports the implementation of regular audits on adherence to integrity-related rules/codes of conduct, and the allocation of sufficient resources to the integrity-related training of civil servants;

70.

Points out that political parties are responsible for proposing candidates or drawing up election lists at all levels and have to gauge the calibre of candidates, not least by requiring them to comply with strict codes of ethics, including a code of conduct which should also cover clear and transparent rules on donations to political parties;

71.

Maintains that persons should be ineligible for membership of the European Parliament or service for other EU institutions and agencies if they have been convicted by final judgment of participation in organised crime, money laundering, corruption, or other serious economic or financial offences against the public interest; calls for a similar principle to be laid down, with due regard for the principle of proportionality, for the national parliaments and other elective offices;

72.

Recommends that Members States introduce and effectively apply, as an element of the sanctions system, instances of ineligibility for those convicted of corruption; considers that this penalty should apply for at least five years in order to cover all types of election; also recommends that the same period of disqualification should apply to government posts at every level, including EU level;

73.

Recommends that persons should be required to forfeit political office (governmental or the like) or management and administrative positions once they have been convicted of organised crime-related, corruption-related or money-laundering offences;

74.

Recognises that immunities enjoyed by certain categories of public office holders and elected representatives are a major obstacle to combating corruption; calls on the Commission and Member States to significantly reduce the categories of those benefitting from immunity;

75.

Calls for codes of ethics to be laid down for political parties and for greater transparency to be brought to bear on their budgets; proposes that public funding for parties be better controlled and that abuse and waste be avoided, with private funding also being better monitored and controlled, in order to ensure the accountability of political parties and their donors;

76.

Calls on the Member States to outlaw and sanction vote-buying, stipulating in particular that the benefits arising from a ‘promise to vote’ can take the form not only of money, but also of other advantages, including intangible advantages and those accorded to third parties not directly implicated in the illicit agreement;

77.

Considers the publication of MEPs' incomes and financial interests to be a good practice which should be extended to national parliamentarians and elected representatives;

78.

Recommends that the Member States establish effective, efficient, accountable and balanced criminal justice systems which can also guarantee the preservation of defence rights in accordance with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights; also recommends that a monitoring mechanism on the efficiency of criminal justice systems in fighting corruption be created at the European level, carrying out regular evaluations and publishing recommendations;

79.

Encourages the Commission and the Member States also to consider non-legislative measures that consolidate trust among the different legal systems in the Member States, enhance coherence and encourage the development of a common EU legal culture in relation to fighting crime;

80.

Invites the Commission to come forward with a legislative proposal setting out the legal liability of legal persons in cases of financial crime and in particular the liability of holdings and parent companies for their subsidiaries; stresses that this proposal should clarify the liability of natural persons for crimes committed by the company, or its subsidiaries, for which they can be held partially or wholly responsible;

81.

Believes that approximation measures on corruption should address the differences in statutes of limitations among Member States, with a view to taking account of both defence needs and the need for effective and efficient prosecution and conviction, and that such statutes of limitations should be organised according to the stages of the proceedings or the instance involved, so that a crime could be barred only if the stage or step in question had not been completed within a given defined time-frame; also believes that, subject to the principle of proportionality and the rule of law, corruption cases should not be time-barred as long as criminal proceedings are effectively under way;

82.

Believes that measures to combat organised crime should be based on a combination of effective dissuasive systems for the confiscation of criminal assets, efforts to ensure that fugitives who deliberately elude inquiries will be brought to justice, and preventing imprisoned bosses of criminal groups, without prejudice to the basic principles relating to prisoners’ rights, from continuing to run their organisation and give orders to members even though they themselves are in prison;

83.

Encourages Member States to lay down dissuasive and effective penalties, both criminal sentences and fines, including large fines, for all types of serious offences that harm citizens’ health and security, and recommends the harmonisation of penalties;

84.

Points out, without prejudice to paragraph 80, the importance of the prevention of crime and organised crime, and urges the Member States to develop and to introduce effective legal instruments and punishments offering an alternative to imprisonment, such as fines or community service, in cases where this is permitted and taking account of all the circumstances, including the non-serious nature of the offence;

85.

Urges businesses to practise self-regulation and transparency through codes of conduct and to introduce oversight procedures, including internal or external audit and public registers of lobbyists working within the institutions, in order to avoid corruption, collusion and conflicts of interest between the public and private sectors and prevent unfair competition; also recommends transparency on areas, targets and financial information, at both national and EU level;

86.

Calls for the creation of lists of companies accredited to public authorities and lists of those that have to be excluded; believes that the latter would apply where companies have shown significant deficiencies in contractual requirements or there is a conflict of interest, whether in the Member States or at EU level;

87.

Calls on the Member States to strengthen the role of chambers of commerce by preventing, providing information on, and curbing the most frequent money- laundering risks in the business world, and to fully implement the Commission’s Action Plan to strengthen the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion;

88.

Recalls that investigative journalism, as well as NGOs and the academia working on issues related to the operations of the public administration and of corporate undertakings, perform a key benign function in identifying instances of fraud, corruption or other mischief;

89.

Calls on businesses to: ensure the implementation of internal procurement guidelines to ensure compliance with the law and maximum transparency in bidding processes for public contracts; avoid dealing with contractors and suppliers known or reasonably suspected to be paying bribes; exercise due diligence, as appropriate, in evaluating prospective contractors and suppliers to ensure that they have effective anti-bribery programmes; make known anti-bribery policies to contractors and suppliers; monitor significant contractors and suppliers as part of their regular review of relationships with them and have a right to termination in the event that the latter pay bribes or act in a manner inconsistent with the business's programme;

90.

Calls for stepped-up cooperation with and greater transparency of the banking system and the professions, including the financial sector and the accounting professions, in all Member States and with non-EU countries, especially with a view to determining which IT tools and legislative and administrative measures might be used to ensure the traceability of financial flows and ascertain criminal activity and to laying down procedures for reporting such offences as might have occurred;

91.

Calls on the Commission and the other supervisory authorities to ensure provision of customer due diligence measures and related risk profiles by banks, insurance companies, and credit institutions in order to ensure that corporate or legal entities in the Member States obtain and hold adequate, accurate and current information on their ultimate beneficial owners, including from offshore tax havens, and that business registers are regularly updated and monitored for quality; considers that transparency of information — also by means of publication of a country-by-country registry of real ownership and through crossborder cooperation — can contribute to combating phenomena such as money laundering, the financing of terrorism, tax fraud and tax avoidance;

92.

Calls on Member States to introduce the concept of Beneficial Ownership in their business registries and to work towards the inclusion of this concept globally as well as mechanisms for information exchange;

93.

Calls on the Commission to establish a common set of principles and administrative guidelines for the appropriate use of Transfer Pricing;

94.

Fully support the Commission's proposal to explicitly mention tax crimes as predicate offences to money laundering, in line with the 2012 recommendation of the Financial Action Task Force-FATF; urges the EU to enhance the transparency of beneficial ownership information and anti-money laundering (AML) customer diligence procedures; favours an EU-wide harmonisation of the money-laundering offence and calls for full implementation of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, through effective monitoring, proportional sanctions and based on credible safeguards;

95.

Recommends the accurate assessment of the risks entailed in new banking and financial products where these allow anonymity or long-distance operations; calls, in addition, for a common definition of tax havens, since they are often used by criminal organisations for the issue of bonds by private companies or banks whose beneficial ownership is hard to ascertain;

96.

Hopes that operational solutions will be found to ensure that, without infringing the regulations on the protection of personal data, financial and credit operators will be able to establish the identity of the party requesting a transaction, bearing in mind that fraud linked to identity theft is sometimes the prelude to money laundering; therefore welcomes the establishment of a banking union;

97.

Recommends doing away with bank secrecy;

98.

Calls on all stakeholders, public and private, to take resolute action to combat money laundering; calls for action to ensure full compliance with AML requirements by professionals, for instance in the form of systems for reporting suspicious transactions and codes of conduct for professional bodies and trade associations;

99.

Points out the essential role of financial information units in guaranteeing high international standards in fighting money laundering; recognises the importance of the European instruments for the traceability of financial flows in order to combat threats such as cybercrime, money laundering and the financing of terrorism;

100.

Recommends that measures be taken to identify and check gamblers on a systematic basis, ban the use of anonymous means of payment to settle bets placed online, and prevent anonymity in online gambling by enabling host servers to be identified and developing IT systems to ensure that any movements of money made through online and offline games will be fully traceable;

101.

Welcomes the fact that the proposed scope of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive has been widened as regards gambling; calls on the Commission to propose a legislative framework and appropriate measures to combat money laundering linked to betting, in particular sports betting, specifying new offences such as betting-related match fixing and laying down penalties of appropriate severity and supporting monitoring arrangements involving sports federations, associations, online and offline operators and, where necessary, national authorities; urges sports organisations to establish a code of conduct for all staff with a clear prohibition on manipulating matches for betting or other purposes, a ban on gambling on own matches and an obligation to report awareness of match-fixing with an adequate whistleblower protection mechanism;

102.

Notes that money laundering through organised sports betting is often the work of organised crime; calls on the Commission, therefore, to bring forward a legislative proposal setting out a common definition of corruption and fraud in sport; calls on the Member States not to authorise betting on matches without a sporting dimension, and to ban the riskiest forms of sports betting; also recommends that systems be put in place at national level for reporting suspicions of corruption in sport, along the lines of those set up for money laundering, with which operators of online and offline games and everyone working in the sports sector would be required to comply;

103.

Emphasises that cooperation and information exchange between Member States, their regulatory bodies, Europol and Eurojust should be reinforced to combat criminal activities in cross-border online gambling activities;

104.

Recognises that online gambling is an increasingly common way to launder money in which winnings are often tax free, the large volumes of transactions making dirty money very hard to detect and the numerous payment processors further complicating the system; calls for the establishment of a regulatory framework to combat money laundering through online gambling of all kinds;

105.

Urges Member States to: include a harmonised definition of match fixing in criminal law and create a legal instrument as a tool for combating it; to stipulate sanctions relating to match fixing, including fines and confiscation, and to create a specialised unit for combating match fixing within law enforcement as a hub for communication and cooperation with the main stakeholders, with a view to further investigation, and referral to prosecution;

106.

Calls for more cooperation at European level — coordinated by the Commission — to identify and prohibit online gambling operators engaged in match-fixing activities and other illegal activities;

107.

Calls on the sport governing bodies, Member States and the European Commission to invest in awareness-raising campaigns about match-fixing for athletes about the legal consequences of this criminal offence and the harmful effects on the integrity of sports competitions;

108.

Calls for the role and responsibilities of financial intelligence units in the Member States to be harmonised at a better level, for their powers to be increased and for the cooperation arrangement applying to them to be strengthened;

109.

Proposes that Member States should be coherent together in their sentencing and punishments and in prison systems and training of prison staff;

110.

Recommends that a stronger Europe-wide supervisory role in relation to money laundering be conferred on the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, and the Single Supervisory Mechanism, not least with a view to establishing a genuine European banking union able to combat corruption and money laundering through effective action on the basis of harmonised rules on conflicts of interests and monitoring systems; insists that, in the meantime, supervisory capacities, expertise and incisiveness should be reinforced at the national level, with a view to closer cooperation between national authorities;

111.

Calls for minimum standards of good governance in tax-related matters to be encouraged, in particular through joint initiatives by Member States regarding their relations with territories constituting tax havens, not least in order to facilitate access to proprietary information relating to any shell companies that might be based there; insists on the importance of the abovementioned Commission communication of 6 December 2012 regarding strengthening the link between EU anti-fraud policy and development, tax and trade policies;

112.

Calls on the European Union to take effective measures in the international arena, for example at G8 and G20 meetings, to eradicate crimes linked to tax havens;

113.

Stresses that the principles of taxation should be brought in line with the OECD recommendations in the report ‘Addressing base erosion and profit shifting’, so that the general principle of taxation is that taxation should take place where the economic activities generating income took place, the ‘origin of wealth’ principle;

114.

Considers that the origin of wealth principle makes it easier for tax authorities to tax effectively and to avoid tax evasion; considers that a fair tax system is indispensable, especially in times of crisis, where the tax burden is shifted unfairly to small business and households, and that tax evasion is in part created by tax heavens inside the EU;

115.

Underlines that stepping up the fight against tax fraud and evasion is a vital key to promoting sustainable growth in the EU; stresses that reduced levels of fraud and evasion would strengthen the growth potential in the economy by making public finances healthier and by making enterprises compete on an honest and level playing field;

116.

Calls on auditing firms and legal consultants to alert national tax authorities to any signs of aggressive tax planning of the audited or advised company;

117.

Welcomes the Commission's commitment to promoting the automatic exchange of information; calls once more, however, for an internationally binding multilateral automatic tax-information exchange agreement, which should also cover trusts and foundations and include sanctions for non-cooperative jurisdictions and for financial institutions that operate with tax havens; urges the EU to adopt measures similar to the US Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act and to consider the possibility of withdrawing banking licences from financial institutions that operate with tax havens; calls on the Commission to propose a European black list of tax havens based on stringent criteria and to propose European sanction regimes in the event of non-compliance or enhanced cooperation, should an EU approach not be possible;

118.

Calls on Member States and the European Parliament to reach agreement quickly on the EU directives concerning openness and accounting; calls for the scope of the Directives, in future, to be widened to cover all large undertakings, irrespective of sector;

119.

Calls on the Commission to develop strong criteria concerning the substance of business to end the creation of shell companies or letterbox companies that aid the legal and illegal practises of tax avoidance and tax evasion;

120.

Calls on the Commission to conduct an evaluation of the current tax treaties being in effect between member states and third countries that could be considered tax havens; also asks the Commission to submit proposals, including the revision of any such agreements, to address this issue; calls on the Commission to report its findings and its proposals to the European Parliament by the end of 2013 at the latest;

121.

Believes that European satellite earth observation systems could help to identify the routes of vessels secretly transporting, unloading, or trans-shipping illegal goods; calls, therefore, on the judicial authorities to step up the use of new technologies, including satellite observation, in this area, since these could contribute to combating the activities of organised crime;

122.

Notes that global growth in the use of the internet has provided new opportunities for internet based crime, such as intellectual property theft, the sale and purchase of counterfeit products and identity theft, which threatens the economy, safety and health of European citizens;

123.

Notes that education, awareness and public campaigns are essential in order to tackle the growing problem of Cybercrime; stresses that a lack of public awareness and skills strengthen the ability for organised crime groups to exploit the internet and its opportunities;

124.

Welcomes the creation of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and encourages the further development of this agency, in particular in order to fight organized crime, also on a crossborder basis and in cooperation with third countries;

125.

Stresses that there is an urgent need to develop of an agreed and precise concept of the term ‘cybercrime’ that could be applied to all Member States within the EU;

126.

Encourages the promotion of research on the use of new technologies in various control systems used by Member States and facilitate their application; these could include for example the on line observation and recording of on-sight tax, customs and other kinds of controls by centralised anti-corruption units;

127.

Encourages the creation of a uniform reporting system of all the fraud and corruption cases that are being prosecuted (with adequate protection of personal data and the presumption of innocence);

128.

Calls for a European Public Prosecutor’s Office to be established as provided for in Article 86 TFEU, in particular to combat, investigate, prosecute and bring to judgement crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests and serious offences of a crossborder nature; recommends that the future office should have an efficient and streamlined structure and should be given the task of coordinating and encouraging national authorities so as to make investigations more coherent through uniform procedural rules; considers it essential that the Commission should present a proposal before September 2013 clearly defining the structure of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, its accountability to the European Parliament and, in particular, its interaction with Europol, Eurojust, OLAF and the Fundamental Rights Agency, and that the EPPO should be supported by a clear procedural rights framework, with the offences over which it is to have authority being clearly defined;

129.

Believes that Eurojust could continue to deal with the offences referred to in Article 83(1) TFEU and, where necessary, the complementary offences relating to the implementation of EU policies, as provided for in Article 83(2) TFEU, whilst ensuring democratic and fundamental rights accountability in its upcoming review;

130.

Urges the Member States not to reduce the Union budget for short-term headline reasons but to provide additional funds for Europol, Eurojust, Frontex and the future EPPO, because their success has a multiplier effect on reducing losses of taxes to Member States;

131.

Wishes to see an arrangement with Liechtenstein to fight cross-border crime;

132.

Urges the Member States to transpose, as soon as possible, Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime; calls on the Commission to ensure that the transposition into national law is completed correctly; urges Member States and the Commission to complete the Roadmap on the rights of suspects and persons accused of offences, including a directive on pre-trial detention;

133.

Calls for stronger punishment for participation in organised criminal groups and for offences connected with drug trafficking and trafficking in people and human organs;

134.

Urges the Member States, as recommended by the UNCAC, to adopt legislative and other measures to establish as an offence, when committed intentionally, illicit enrichment, that is, a significant increase in the assets of a public official that he or she cannot reasonably explain in relation to his or her lawful income;

135.

Expresses concern over the fact that even though a whole range of so-called emerging crimes, such as illegal waste trafficking, illegal trafficking in works of art and protected species, and goods counterfeiting, are extremely profitable for criminal organisations, have a particularly negative social, economic and environmental impact and are of a highly transnational nature, they are not included among ‘Euro-crimes’; takes the view that these offences should be appropriately considered in the decisions taken at EU level and thus proposes that the Council, by virtue of its powers under Article 83(1) TFEU, adopt a decision to identify other areas of crime including those mentioned above;

136.

Calls on the Commission, as soon as possible, to submit the legislative proposal on an effective European whistleblowers protection programme as far as crossborder corruption and corruption affecting the EU’s financial interests are concerned and on the protection of witnesses and informers, in particular with a view to resolving the difficult conditions under which they may have to live, ranging from risks of retaliation to the breakdown of family ties or from being uprooted from their home territory to social and professional exclusion;

137.

Takes the view that the handling of witnesses and management of protection programmes cannot be dependent on budget constraints, since it is a duty, which the national and EU authorities cannot disregard, to guarantee the security and safety of citizens, especially of those who have ruined their lives to stand by the government; calls on all Member States to take the necessary measures (legislative or otherwise) to guarantee that witnesses and their families are physically safe and have the right to carry on leading a dignified social, professional, family and economic life, with appropriate support from the institutions (including provision for the recruitment of witnesses to the civil service);

138.

Calls on the Commission to implement, as soon as possible, all measures and instruments presented in the Commission communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions entitled ‘EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human beings 2012-2016’ (COM(2012)0286 final);

139.

Calls on the Commission to submit a legislative proposal on Europol, as stipulated in Article 88(2) TFUE, with a view to improving Europol's operational efficiency and effectiveness in the field of combating serious and organised crime; underlines that the future reform of the agency should not hamper the unique role of CEPOL in the EU's training activities in the field of law enforcement;

140.

Reminds all Member States to promptly transpose into their national legislation all existing EU and international legal instruments, to respond in particular to the many reminders issued by the Commission with regard to the correct transposition of the numerous existing Framework Decisions;

141.

Stresses the need to promote a culture of legality and to increase citizens' knowledge of the mafia phenomenon; recognises in this regard the fundamental role played by cultural, recreational and sports associations in raising public awareness of the fight against organised crime and the promotion of lawfulness and justice;

142.

Calls on the Commission to develop a European action plan against wildlife trafficking, highlighting clear deliverables, both internal and external to the EU, in order to reduce the illegal trade in wildlife species and body parts; calls on the Commission and Council to leverage their trade and development instruments to establish dedicated programmes, with substantial funding, to strengthen the implementation of CITES and provide resources for capacity-building against poaching and trafficking, in particular by supporting, strengthening and expanding enforcement initiatives such as ASEAN-WEN and HA-WEN, which aim to establish regional centres of expertise and provide models for cooperation against wildlife crime;

143.

Requests harmonised and severe sanctions for smuggling wild animals, and their body parts and rare plants and trees into the Union;

144.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the national parliaments, CEPOL, Europol, Eurojust, OLAF, the Council of Europe, the OECD, Interpol, UNODC, the World Bank, and the FATF.