WRITTEN QUESTION E-1976/03 by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council. Involvement of senior political figures in Portuguese paedophile rings.
Date: 2003-06-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Portugal, child pornography, child protection, children's rights, fight against crime, paedophilia, political figure, sexual violence, social policy

26.2.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 51 E/173

(2004/C 51 E/192)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1976/03

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council

(13 June 2003)

Subject: Involvement of senior political figures in Portuguese paedophile rings

Recent revelations regarding the involvement of senior political figures in Portuguese paedophile rings
coincide with the preparations for the trial of a prominent television presenter, a former diplomat and a
child health specialist in similar cases. This once more highlights the bleak reality regarding the sexual
abuse of children. In this connection the Council is on the point of adopting an official and definitive
decision regarding proposed measures
the sexual exploitation of children and child
to combat
pornography following two years of deliberations and negotiations between the Member States.

Is the Council satisfied with policies to date seeking to combat the sexual exploitation of children and does
it consider further measures necessary to combat effectively at European level this extremely serious
problem, which is nothing less than a direct violation of human rights and human dignity?

Reply

(7 October 2003)

As a general point, the Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual exploitation of children and
child pornography, on which political agreement was reached at the Justice and Home Affairs Council
meeting on 14 and 15 October 2002, has not yet been evaluated. Indeed, it cannot be formally adopted
until the parliamentary procedure currently under way in one Member State has been concluded. The
Council nevertheless believes
recently adopted mutual assistance
instruments such as the European arrest warrant (1) or the Convention on Mutual Assistance of 29 May
2002 (2), and the extension of Europol’s powers to cover child pornography (3), provide effective tools to
combat these kinds of crimes. The preventive nature of the legal framework set in place, which ensures
that none of these crimes goes unpunished in the European Union, cannot, however, totally guarantee that
there will be no more such unfortunate cases of sexual exploitation of children.

instrument, and other

that

that

As for this particular instance, the Council never comments on cases pending before the judicial authorities
of the Member States, nor on the content of articles in the press.

(1) OJ L 190, 18.7.2002.
(2) OJ C 197, 12.7.2000, OJ C 379, 29.12.2000, OJ C 110, 7.5.2002.
(3) Council Decision of 3 December 1998 supplementing the definition of the form of crime ‘trafficking in human

beings’ in the Annex to the Europol Convention (OJ C 26, 30.1.1999, p. 21).

(2004/C 51 E/193)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1977/03

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council

(13 June 2003)

Subject: Infringement by FYROM of the rights of Roma

Concern has recently been expressed by the ‘Médicins du Monde’ organisation concerning flagrant
violations of the human rights of around 600 Roma (including 270 children, 10 pregnant women and
many elderly persons) on the boundary between Greece and FYROM near the Meditlija border crossing.
Without tents or any other form of shelter from the sun and rain and lacking elementary hygiene facilities,
the refugees have been stranded out in the open since March when the UNHCR and the FYROM Ministry
of Labour decided to close the camp, cancelling supplies of food, water and electricity. On 22 May the
Macedonian security forces forcibly drove the refugees away from the border. Lacking travel documents,
the Roma are completely dependent upon the authorities for survival.