Child safety a top priority for EU action

Date: 19/09/1996

EUROPEAN Commission proposals for tougher action to combat the illegal trafficking of women are being recast in response to the current clamour for new measures to protect children as well.

A Commission communication expected in November will take up recommendations made at a recent conference in Vienna to protect women 'imported' into Europe for the sex industry.

But Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Anita Gradin has instructed her officials to revise the proposals to take account of public concern over child safety, in light of recent events.

Public outcry in Belgium over the arrest of convicted paedophile Marc Dutroux and the discovery of four children's bodies on his property has put child protection at the top of the political agenda.

Experts from a number of Commission directorate-generals are now racking their brains for ideas which could form part of an overall strategy to combat child exploitation.

To help them in their work, officials have been asked to put together a paper summarising all EU work in the area of child abuse. But they admit this is no easy task, because of the lack of any coordinated activity.

In the meantime, Gradin will present some first, broad ideas to EU justice ministers when they meet informally in Dublin next week.

In addition to urging ministers to assume extraterritorial jurisdiction over sex tourism, she will call on them to support EU-level funding for research into child abuse and suggest some rationalisation of sentencing practices is necessary.

“How can the sentence for drug trafficking be 12 years, and for trafficking in women, or selling small boys, only 12 months?” she asks.

Gradin also advocates a greater role for the Hague-based criminal intelligence agency, Europol.

“Why not report all the missing children to Europol, so they could have a database? Then police organisations could exchange views, and make analyses,” she says.

The Belgian government, stung by recent events which have rocked the nation, will present no less than six proposals to next week's informal ministerial meeting.

These will include calls for a European 'centre of expertise', improved police and judicial cooperation through legal harmonisation and greater powers for the European Court of Justice.

The 'centre of expertise' would be virtual rather than physical, say officials, comprising a directory of specialists on the issue of child abuse throughout Europe.