WRITTEN QUESTION E-2943/00

by Generoso Andria (PPE-DE), Stefano Zappalà (PPE-DE) and Francesco Fiori (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 September 2000)

Subject: Crime in Italy

In Italy crime has risen, and continues to rise, inexorably and the measures implemented by the government are still wholly inadequate.

Until recently, crime was particularly widespread in large metropolitan areas, while areas whose economy was primarily agricultural, or those which had not undergone large-scale urbanisation, were considered to be havens of peace.

Now, however, no area is exempt from the rise in crime, which is increasingly caused both by the growing numbers of local criminals and by those who migrate to Italy from non-EU countries.

Rural, agriculture-based areas have no established traditions in this respect and so the locals are finding themselves unprepared to tackle such crime.

Even the state machinery for preventing and curbing crime, embodied by its police forces, though visibly present in towns and cities, in outlying areas offers at the very most a simple, and often unequipped, carabinieri station with few police officers.

Despite the organisational incompetence of the government, in the person of the Minister for Home Affairs, police officers on the whole do all they possibly can to protect the public, sometimes paying with their lives.

Defenceless citizens also pay the price by being robbed of their personal effects and having their daily lives turned upside-down by both serious and petty crimes perpetrated by criminals who are often ignorant, arrogant, savage and who will stop at nothing; such a case occurred recently in Giffoni, Salerno province, where a defenceless jeweller was beaten on the head with a hammer in broad daylight and was left to bleed to death, with nobody coming to his aid.

In the light of the above, what measures does the Commission intend to take against the Italian Government to ensure that a more effective crime prevention and punishment system is put in place, thereby enabling EU citizens to live in peace?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(23 October 2000)

The Commission would point out that responsibility for law and order in cities and the fight against crime lies mainly with the Member States, and that the Commission has no remit to comment on public order issues.

The Commission acknowledges the practical difficulties which may arise in some Member States, particularly those with sparsely populated regions. Its structural programmes provide a means of supporting projects designed to increase security in certain geographical areas. Italy was the first Member State to take advantage of these opportunities within the framework of development projects for the Mezzogiorno.

The Commission also believes that an effective policy in this area must be based not purely on enforcement but also on prevention. It refers to the conclusions of the Tampere European Council on the fight against and prevention of urban crime, juvenile delinquency and drugs-related crime. As follow-up to that Council, the Portuguese Presidency organised a high-level conference on crime prevention in May 2000. The Commission is currently preparing a communication on a crime prevention strategy which will cover aspects relating to delinquency and to the prevention of organised crime and certain types of economic crime with a view to implementing the Council resolutions of December 1998(1). This report should be adopted before the year-end.

(1) OJ C 408, 29.12.1998.