WRITTEN QUESTION E-2943/00 by Generoso Andria (PPE-DE), Stefano Zappalà (PPE-DE) and Francesco Fiori (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Crime in Italy.
Date: 2000-09-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Italy, delinquency, neighbourhood police, prevention of delinquency, public safety, rural habitat

C 136 E/138

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

8.5.2001

(2001/C 136 E/160)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2943/00

by Generoso Andria (PPE-DE), Stefano Zappal(cid:224) (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,
government are still wholly inadequate.

inexorably and the measures implemented by the

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 (cid:145)havens of peace(cid:146).

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
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.

incompetence of the government,

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 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?

the above, what measures does the Commission intend to take against

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
Italy was the first
supporting projects designed to increase security in certain geographical areas.
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.