WRITTEN QUESTION E-1103/02 by María Valenciano Martínez-Orozco (PSE)and Anna Terrón i Cusí (PSE) to the Council. Council Framework Decision on combating trafficking in human beings.
Date: 2002-04-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European judicial area, child pornography, fight against crime, prostitution, trafficking in human beings

12.12.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 309 E/83

(2002/C 309 E/095)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1103/02

by María Valenciano Martínez-Orozco (PSE)
and Anna Terrón i Cusí (PSE) to the Council

(18 April 2002)

Subject: Council Framework Decision on combating trafficking in human beings

Trafficking in human beings is a serious problem in Europe. The main reason for the unsuccessful
implementation of the specific objectives of the Joint Action of February 1997 concerning action to
combat the trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of children is the lack of common
definitions, charges and sanctions in the criminal law of Member States. Moreover, political agreement
within the Council on the definitive text already appears to have existed since autumn 2001. When does
the Council foresee the formal adoption of the Framework Decision on combating trafficking in human
beings (1) and what are the factors blocking its final adoption?

(1) COM(2000) 854 final, OJ C 62 E, 27.2.2001, p. 324.

Reply

(30 September 2002)

As the Honourable Members rightly state in their question, political agreement was reached on the draft
Framework Decision at the Council meeting on 27 and 28 September 2001, without prejudice to the
parliamentary scrutiny reservations of several Member States not all of which have yet been withdrawn.

(2002/C 309 E/096)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1104/02

by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Council

(18 April 2002)

Subject: Political measures to clarify relations between the Canaries and Morocco

The geographical proximity of the Canary Islands to the African Continent (Morocco, Sahara, Mauritania)
is indisputable, as is the fact that the Canary Islands are also European territory by virtue of being an
autonomous community of a Member State (Spain) and have to be considered as such when implementing
the European Treaties. The same applies to the fulfilment of obligations and
the provisions of
commitments under the international agreements and treaties signed by the European Union with non-
member countries, especially neighbouring countries of
the Canary Islands, such as Morocco and
Mauritania.

the outermost regions of

is furthermore indisputable that

It
the EU enjoy legal protection under
paragraph 2 of Article 299 of the EC Treaty, which enables the Council to adopt specific measures in
several areas, such as economic, trade or financial matters, when Community provisions are implemented.
This allows them to deal with many problems, which in the case of the Canaries result from a set of
its proximity to
circumstances which include its geographical position as the EU’s external frontier,
another continent, as well as its insularity and the distance factor. However, there are other areas such as
social and environmental matters, in which different problems arise (cid:1) deriving, in the first instance, from
illegal immigration and, in the second instance, from prospecting for and exploiting natural resources (cid:1)
for which no specific corrective measures have been envisaged by the Community institutions.

This legal void should be brought to the Community’s attention by the Presidency of the Council in order
to resolve and deal with these types of issues, which are often controversial, of which Morocco’s attitude is
a case in point. Firstly, it has failed to comply with the action plan on migration agreed on with the EU,
taking a permissive attitude to illegal immigration from its territory to that of the Canaries. A second