92003E1976

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1976/03

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council

(13 June 2003)

Subject: Involvement of senior political figures in Portuguese paedophile rings

Recent revelations regarding the involvement of senior political figures in Portuguese paedophile rings coincide with the preparations for the trial of a prominent television presenter, a former diplomat and a child health specialist in similar cases. This once more highlights the bleak reality regarding the sexual abuse of children. In this connection the Council is on the point of adopting an official and definitive decision regarding proposed measures to combat the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography following two years of deliberations and negotiations between the Member States.

Is the Council satisfied with policies to date seeking to combat the sexual exploitation of children and does it consider further measures necessary to combat effectively at European level this extremely serious problem, which is nothing less than a direct violation of human rights and human dignity?

Reply

(7 October 2003)

As a general point, the Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, on which political agreement was reached at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 14 and 15 October 2002, has not yet been evaluated. Indeed, it cannot be formally adopted until the parliamentary procedure currently under way in one Member State has been concluded. The Council nevertheless believes that that instrument, and other recently adopted mutual assistance instruments such as the European arrest warrant(1) or the Convention on Mutual Assistance of 29 May 2002(2), and the extension of Europol's powers to cover child pornography(3), provide effective tools to combat these kinds of crimes. The preventive nature of the legal framework set in place, which ensures that none of these crimes goes unpunished in the European Union, cannot, however, totally guarantee that there will be no more such unfortunate cases of sexual exploitation of children.

As for this particular instance, the Council never comments on cases pending before the judicial authorities of the Member States, nor on the content of articles in the press.

(1) OJ L 190, 18.7.2002.

(2) OJ C 197, 12.7.2000, OJ C 379, 29.12.2000, OJ C 110, 7.5.2002.

(3) Council Decision of 3 December 1998 supplementing the definition of the form of crime trafficking in human beings in the Annex to the Europol Convention (OJ C 26, 30.1.1999, p. 21).