Mr President, firstly I would like to respond on behalf of Mr Cashman who is a Socialist Group shadow on this report and cannot attend this evening. He would like to inform the House that the Group welcomes this report and the measures in it intended to prevent the activities of hooligans and organised thugs at matches. We will, however, need to monitor the way these monitoring centres carry out their functions to ensure that the football community is fully engaged in the exchange of information. Most important of all is the need to ensure adequate resources both in financial and personnel terms. It would be wrong to raise expectations to a level which cannot be met. We can, of course, defeat hooliganism. The proposals indicate we have the will to do the job, but the resources must follow. Then I would like to intervene personally in this debate. I too would like to add my support to Mr Deprez's report and its amendments, specifically, his amendment 10 calling for closer cooperation and an organised exchange of information. If the European network of national football information centres is to be effective, then we need to address the current weaknesses in the system of information exchange and ad hoc contacts. On Friday, I visited the football intelligence unit in the Greater Manchester police service. Unfortunately, we have a wealth of experience and expertise in tackling football-related violence in my city. The assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has read this report and he welcomes the initiative in the light of what he calls 'different standards in dealing, for example, with Manchester United away fixtures and England away fixtures'. On Friday the unit was preparing for two key matches on Saturday. One of those was Oldham versus Stoke City: the last time these two teams had met, known hooligans had rampaged through the town, wrecking property and attacking people. In the UK we have pro-active football legislation to deal with our hooligan problems. This allows us to impose banning orders; so, when a hundred of those fans arrived in Oldham, they were immediately arrested because they are banned from attending any matches. Those banning orders also apply to international matches. The football intelligence unit has a sophisticated database of so-called 'football prominents', using the latest digital image technology to update and record cases. Let me tell you where the unit believes the EU information exchange system has to do better: 150 fans were deported from Charleroi in June 2000. Among those arriving in Manchester airport were Belgian nationals, some of whom may not have been involved in any hooliganism at all. Rounding up and deportation without prosecution does nothing to help the intelligence network on hooliganism. A list of, and report on, the deportees was then sent to the intelligence unit: very helpful as far as it went, but the report contained no information. Officers could not read it because it was not in English, and they could not act on it because the information did not allow for any further action due to prosecution or conviction. During Euro 1996, German fans arrived in Manchester. As a result of German data protection and privacy laws, no lists of known hooligans could be passed on to the local intelligence forces and the officers working in the unit therefore had no information accessible in a usable format to tackle the hooligans. So there is an issue here, Commissioner, in that we do need to standardise our information formats while recognising that there are different cultures on policing and information collection across the EU. Perhaps we need to consider some form of information protocol. This was the idea of my own football intelligence unit officers. We need to deal with hooliganism pro-actively not re-actively. On the issue of cost, which is an amendment tabled by Mrs Sanders-Ten Holte, no doubt it would be useful to have a study on whether clubs should pay more for the policing of hooliganism. The difficulty is, however, who pays those costs after hours in cities where football hooligans are still engaged in activities. In 2004 we will be hosting the final of the European championships at Old Trafford in Manchester. Our priority has to be to protect the law-abiding supporter and clamp down on hooligans who spoil the game. We need a practical, pro-active approach to information sharing for national monitoring centres. Their existence alone, Commissioner, will not guarantee the end of football hooliganism.

Political group: PSE