Parliamentary Questions

WRITTEN QUESTIONΗ E-1976/03

Submission: Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council

(3 June 2003)

E-1976/03

Answer

(7 October 2003)

In general, the Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, on which a political agreement was reached at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on October 14 and 15, 2002, has not yet been evaluated, and its formal issuance will only be possible once the parliamentary procedure, which is still ongoing in one Member State, is completed. However, the Council believes that this act, as well as other acts of mutual legal assistance recently issued, such as the European arrest warrant[1] or the Mutual Legal Assistance Convention of May 29, 2000[2], as well as the extension of Europol’s mandate to include child pornography[3], provide effective tools for combating such crimes. Unfortunately, the preventive role of the existing legal framework, which ensures that none of these crimes go unpunished within the European Union, cannot fully prevent the emergence of cases of sexual exploitation of children.

Moreover, the Council never rules on cases pending before the judicial authorities of Member States, nor on articles with outdated content.

[1] EE L 190, 18.07.2002.

[2] EE C 197, 12/07/00, EE C 379, 29/12/00, EE C 110, 07/05/02.

[3] Council Decision of December 3, 1998, on completing the objective elements of the crime of “human trafficking” as referred to in the Annex of the Europol Convention (EU C 26, 30.1.1999, p. 21).