Speeches

(IT) Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, on 20 November we celebrated the 35th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a historic text which recognised children as fully entitled to rights and established precise legal obligations for the signatory countries, in order to guarantee the protection and protection of the rights of all, all children, to ensure their peaceful and harmonious development. But still today too many children do not see their rights respected: children living in conflict zones; children who are victims of physical, psychological, exploitation and abuse violence, including online; Uneducated children in poverty and social exclusion. And the latest UNICEF report from February 2024 is shocking: One in four children in EU countries is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, i.e. 20 million children. And this is only in Europe: It is unacceptable. We all have a moral, as well as a legal, duty to listen to the voice of children and to intervene to protect their rights. That must be our priority.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the recruitment of children to commit crimes is particularly odious, because the first victims are the same children recruited, removed from their innocence and exploited by unscrupulous criminals. This is nothing new, of course, but in recent years the phenomenon has intensified: According to an alarming note issued by Europol a few days ago, children and young people are involved in more than 70% of criminal sectors: cybercrime, online fraud, drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, property crime and increasingly violent acts such as extortion and murder. Recruitment techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated and subtle, with the massive use of apps. social media and online platforms that ensure anonymity and easy contact. The criminals then easily manipulate the younger ones, adopting their own language and techniques of so-called gamification. All this requires targeted enforcement actions and prevention measures but also interventions on social hardship and early school leaving. Because illegality often – and I know this from personal experience – finds fertile ground where children see no way out of loneliness and discomfort.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank President Murphy for his report and the entire European Court of Auditors for its work. It is true that the last few years have been full of unprecedented transformations and challenges to which the European Union as a whole has been able to respond. However, the Court’s report reveals worrying data that call our attention: the significant increase in the level of error, especially in cohesion spending, the slowdown in the absorption of funds, with risks of decommitments, the increase in debt of the budget exposure rate, the record of outstanding commitments, the impact of inflation. As regards the RRF, eligibility deficiencies, weaknesses in national controls and reliability of information are signs to be taken seriously. In this regard, however, I would like to recall that, as acknowledged by the European Public Prosecutor's Office itself, the large number of investigations into the RRF in Italy is due to the ability of the Italian authorities to intercept fraud, certainly not to the absence of fraud in the other Member States. It is therefore necessary to strengthen management and control systems, ensure compliance with procurement rules, as well as eligibility conditions, improve transparency and reliability of information, simplify procedures, in particular for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises. Supervision and cooperation at all levels are essential to ensure sound and proper financial management and thus the effectiveness of Union policies.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, 'everywhere, everything, everyone', these are the key words of the 'European Drug Report 2024'. Drug trafficking and related problems involve all countries. Increasingly new synthetic substances are appearing, with increased health risks, but also challenges for legislators and law enforcement authorities. All of us, directly or indirectly, suffer the consequences in terms of increased drug addiction and crime, including youth crime, and social and health costs. According to Europol, half of the 821 most dangerous criminal networks in the EU are active in drug trafficking, and many of the cases dealt with by Eurojust in 2023 concerned drug trafficking. A widespread and pervasive phenomenon that crosses all national and European borders and requires a strong common response. Controls must be increased, it is true, especially in large ports. Law enforcement cooperation should be strengthened. The new network of prosecutors against organised crime promoted by Eurojust, with a specific focus on international drug trafficking, is therefore good. The new anti-drug action plan to be drawn up by the Commissioner-designate is a good one. But we also need to invest in prevention in order to prevent young people in particular from approaching drug use. And recovery services need to be strengthened to break the cycle of addictions. In short, an all-encompassing approach is needed to try to transform those keywords into "nowhere, nothing, no one".

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, gender-based violence, in particular violence against women, continues to be a serious problem in all the countries of the Union. Unfortunately, the current legislation fails to effectively counteract this alarming phenomenon, which, moreover, when it explodes within the walls of the house, is also dramatically spilled over on children, innocent witnesses of very serious acts by which they will remain deeply marked. I thank Commissioner Dalli for the work she has done in the previous legislature with the adoption of the first directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence. But we now need to go further and provide for a common definition of rape at EU level, based on consensus, and we also need to strengthen EU and national instruments aimed at preventing such crimes in order to bring about a profound cultural change and to break down the stereotypes on which these very serious facts are often based. Zero tolerance in the Union, therefore, against all forms of violence perpetrated against women just because they are women.

Madam President, Commissioner Hahn, ladies and gentlemen, the Europol report mentioned above shows that there are as many as 821 of the most dangerous criminal networks in the whole of the European Union, three quarters of which are active in more than one Member State. And this is yet another confirmation of the fact that organised crime is a serious threat to the security, freedom and dignity of citizens, of all citizens. With their violent crimes and trafficking in drugs, weapons and human beings, these criminal networks threaten people's lives and safety. By infiltrating the legal economy to launder their huge illicit profits, they threaten the freedom of economic operators, who cannot withstand this unfair competition, and by corruption they deny democratic rights and the equality of citizens. Organised crime knows no borders, it is a common threat that requires a common response. The 2021 strategy was a strong awareness of the threat and led to the adoption of important law enforcement measures. But all this work is not enough, it needs to be further strengthened. We must, in particular, combat the unscrupulous use that criminal groups make of new technologies. We need to ensure that the EPPO, Europol and Eurojust have adequate tools and resources. We must step up the fight against money laundering and we must – I would say finally – introduce a new and more effective common definition of a criminal organisation, adapted to its economic dimension and its entrepreneurial vocation, because the crime that shoots or imports drugs is the same crime that launders and invests money. Therefore, the revision of the current legislation on organized crime provided for in the mission letter to the Commissioner-designate: the fight against this threat must be at the top of the priorities of the new Commission. We owe it to the people of Europe. We owe it to those who have sacrificed their lives in the fight against organised crime. Like Judge Rocco Chinnici, my father.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, it is with emotion that I too wish to bring my personal remembrance to this House today. Borsellino and Falcone were the judges that my father, Rocco Chinnici, chose when he created the anti-mafia pool, profoundly innovating the method of fighting organized crime. I myself was entrusted to Paolo Borsellino as a young magistrate. In those months spent together studying files and working, I got to know him as a rigorous and tireless judge, but with a strong human trait. And that July 19, the mafia killed Paolo Borsellino, just under two months after Giovanni Falcone. At that moment, tragically, the circle began on July 29, 1983 with the murder of my father. Three attacks, three devastating explosions in an attempt to erase those who, first, had raised the bar against the mafia. A vain attempt, however, because the work started by Rocco Chinnici, carried out by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, has never stopped. And it is up to us today, European legislators, to strengthen more and more, even in Europe, the fight against all criminal organizations and to keep alive the memory of those who, for this fight, have sacrificed their lives.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, "", the Latins used to say, "money does not smell", but when money is the result of trafficking in arms, drugs and human beings or violence, extortion, fraud and fraud, and is then put back on the market, the victims of those crimes are joined by others: honest entrepreneurs who cannot withstand unfair competition from illicit capital. And, as the EPPO also says, the criminal organizations that reinvest their profits in the legal economy, polluting it, are the same ones behind the most serious and violent crimes, so it is essential to break the vicious cycle of money laundering. With these new measures we overcome the shortcomings and criticalities of the current framework and strengthen the uniformity and effectiveness of the rules. With the establishment of AMLA, we will then carry out the coordinated European supervision that has so far been lacking. If the percentage of illicit profits that we are able to recover today is still too low, it is also due to increasingly sophisticated recycling systems. Preventing and hindering such systems is therefore another fundamental piece to target criminal groups where we can most harm them in their pockets.

(IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, with the directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence, the European Union has finally adopted a first fundamental legislative instrument to prevent and combat the unacceptable violence still suffered by too many women and girls throughout Europe and which, in the case of domestic violence, often also affects children, innocent witnesses of such very serious acts. The text I have worked on introduces a number of crimes such as female genital mutilation, forced marriages, but also online harassment, and includes rules to respond more effectively to the specific needs of victims, such as concrete measures on prevention, support, protection, access to justice. Of course, we wanted to achieve more. In the meantime, however, Member States will have to take specific measures to prevent rape and promote the central role of consent in sexual relations. But, and this is important, the directive, which is the starting point for work to be completed in the next legislature, definitively enshrines a fundamental principle: zero tolerance in the Union against all forms of violence against women.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, help the national authorities to speed up the use of EU funds and remain vigilant, and carry out effective controls at all levels to ensure that the funds are spent according to the rules on time and for the achievement of the expected results. This, in a nutshell, is the warning contained in the latest annual report of the European Court of Auditors, and the agreement reached on the amendments to the Financial Regulation is an important step in this direction. The extension of the EDES system to shared management, which covers 70% of EU programmes for the protection of the budget against crimes such as fraud, corruption, money laundering and, on the other hand, the mandatory entry of data into the ARACHNE system, will increase the effectiveness of controls and ensure greater compliance with the rules. The introduction of forms of simplification to lighten the burden, particularly on small and medium-sized enterprises, could help to speed up the use of resources; by increasing transparency on the beneficiaries of the funds, through the creation of a centralised website, it will be easier to verify the results. And then, even more legal certainty, with the alignment of the Financial Regulation with the MFF package so as to have a single rulebook for all EU spending; new procurement rules for more efficient crisis management; digitalisation, the benefits of which, including for audit and control purposes as well as for cutting red tape, must be fully exploited; transparency, accountability, efficiency, protection of the financial interests of the Union and therefore of European citizens. These are the lines that must guide the spending of funds, especially at a difficult time like the present one, in which, however, the amount of financial resources deployed by the Union is unprecedented. I would therefore particularly like to thank the rapporteurs, Mr Hohlmeier and Mr Ušakovs, for the commitment and tenacity with which they have conducted and concluded the negotiations.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, more than 70% of criminal organisations have ramifications in more than three Member States. Their trades, like their business, know no bounds. The most recent news, then, reminds us how much the terrorist threat is still present. But if crime is so widespread and connected, so must the answer. Those who, like me, have experienced the great season of the fight against organized crime in their personal history, even before being professional, are well aware of how essential the exchange of information between police and judicial authorities is. Such cooperation must now make use of the most modern technologies. I would therefore like to thank the Commission, the co-legislators and, in particular, the rapporteur, Mr Rangel, for agreeing to this new regulation. New categories of data and new and more efficient communication channels, including with Europol, all accompanied by strong safeguards. The agreement goes in the right direction to improve the Prüm framework to increase the contribution it already makes to the fight against crime and terrorism. And I want to thank the Commissioner for her awareness, which is still reiterated today, of the seriousness of organised crime, as well as terrorism.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today more than ever, in an unstable global context characterised by polycrisis and significant geopolitical challenges, including greater competition between the great powers, the strategic partnership between the European Union and India must certainly be strengthened. While cooperation between the Union and India has grown over the years, demonstrating the strong political, economic, social and cultural ties that exist, this cooperation has not yet reached its full potential. It is therefore necessary to prepare a new and ambitious strategic partnership that will take effect in 2025, when the EU-India roadmap signed in 2020 will be concluded. Closer cooperation between the Union and India, based on several priority areas such as climate, environment, energy, health, human rights, respect for human rights, digitalisation and transport, can make a positive contribution to prosperity, global stability, regional security and maintaining a shared vision of effective rules-based multilateralism. The European Union must therefore ensure that these conditions are met, so as to make the strategic partnership with India ever more solid and concrete, in the interests of the citizens of two of the largest democracies in the world.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 'Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women', against women, because words matter. Women and girls suffer physical, sexual, psychological, economic violence only because they are women. The reality of the numbers in the world and in the European Union is dramatic. The story of Giulia Cecchettin – and I thank President Metsola who wanted to remember her in this Chamber – struck us very hard because Giulia was simply a girl: She could have been our daughter, our sister, one of us. And the boy who killed her could have been our son, our brother - and I tell the men - one of you. Well then the new directive, well the accession of the Union to the Istanbul Convention. But education, prevention, protection and repression alone are not enough: a profound cultural change involving families, schools, universities, institutions, social and media must be promoted in order to overcome the culture of possession and control that is the cause of this intolerable violence against women.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, according to the report published last September by Eurostat, almost 20 million children under the age of 18 are at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2022. Indeed, as always, in crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, the highest price is paid by children and among these, once again, the most affected are the most fragile: children from immigration backgrounds, refugees, unaccompanied minors but also children from single-parent families, children with disabilities and children from ethnic minorities. The European Child Guarantee is a key instrument to combat the unacceptable poverty of millions of children in Europe and must certainly be strengthened. It is now up to the Member States to implement effective national action plans so that every child in Europe can truly be guaranteed healthy and harmonious development, as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank President Murphy for the work carried out by the European Court of Auditors, which shows the need for concrete and timely measures and action. The material error rate, which is higher than in 2021, calls for an increase in efforts to simplify procedures, where possible, by lightening the burden on businesses and beneficiaries, without, however, renouncing checks and guarantees of regularity. Furthermore, the risk of loss of funding due to the simultaneous implementation of several instruments by the Member States must be avoided, as must the risks to the budget arising from increased exposure and the high rate of inflation. Particular attention should also be paid to the implementation of the RRF. Targets and targets need to be precisely defined and pre-assessments and ex-post controls strengthened, so that eligibility rules are respected and the intended results achieved, and Member States need to strengthen their reporting and control systems. Of course, 2022 was a complex year, as well as the previous and unfortunately the current one, but precisely for this reason we can only make our recommendations our own: remain vigilant and vigilant, adopt effective controls and cooperate at all levels to ensure that European funds are spent well and on time, in the interest of European citizens.

Organised crime in all its forms, as we have said, as well as terrorism, unfortunately we have just seen it, threatens security, freedom, citizens' rights, the values of the Union, of the whole Union, not of individual states because organised criminal groups know no borders. And so we need a response that is genuinely common and that, as in the experience gained in my country, Italy, is founded on the exchange of information, cooperation, coordination and asset contrast, the "Follow the money" you yourself mentioned. So the 2021 strategy is good, the measures taken so far up to the most recent directives on confiscation and corruption, but it is not enough. Of all the EU crimes, organised crime is perhaps the only one still regulated by a pre-Lisbon act. So I have two questions for you: I would like to ask you what is the outcome of the study launched by the Commission to assess whether Framework Decision 841 of 2008 is still fit for purpose or is not rather a blunt weapon against organised crime, as many argue. And then, if the Commission intends, at last I would say, to propose a directive as comprehensive as was done for terrorism in the past legislature, which is precisely aimed at combating the current criminal organizations, real companies often with a global vocation.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Madam Commissioner, sexual exploitation and abuse, violation of privacy, violence, cyberbullying and profiling for commercial purposes are just some of the risks that, alongside the many opportunities, the digital world creates for children and young people. Of course, the Internet was not designed with minors in mind, but these are now one third of European users. Precise rules and punctual interventions by legislators are needed. provider to prevent digital evolution from having consequences, often serious, on real life, psychophysical health and the development of young people. The BIK+ strategy is important to build a safer, child-sized Internet, but now needs to be translated into concrete actions to actively engage children, educate them and make them aware of the risks, and involve parents, families, schools and educators and strengthen prevention and protection of victims. And businesses, Commissioner, must invest in instruments of safety by design to ensure the safety of minors from the outset. Protecting the little ones even on the net is the task of all of us. For them and with them, we must work towards this goal.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in all countries that are in crisis situations, whether caused by natural disasters, such as the recent disastrous earthquake in Turkey and Syria, or by wars, the highest price is always paid by children, children who are often left alone, who risk ending up in the net of unscrupulous criminal organisations that take advantage of these situations to fuel their vile trafficking and encourage illegal adoptions. With regard to cross-border adoptions from third countries, the European Union, in the context of its external action, must therefore ensure that any decision concerning a child is always taken in accordance with the principle of the best interests of the child and in accordance with the criteria laid down in the 1993 Hague Convention. It is therefore necessary to provide means to strengthen controls, ensure the identification process of children separated from their families, facilitate the tracing of their closest relatives and ensure, also in cross-border adoptions, that these particularly vulnerable children are fully protected.

Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 139: 139 billion euros are estimated by default to be accumulated annually by criminal organisations through their illegal activity in Europe and then laundered by increasingly sophisticated means. This concerns the whole Union and all its Member States and we therefore welcome the inclusion of the fight against organised crime as one of the priorities of the Presidency of the Council. And the Commission's new proposals on information exchange between law enforcement authorities, anti-money laundering and confiscation are certainly decisive steps because, as the Italian experience shows, cooperation and asset law enforcement are essential. Now, however, as repeatedly requested, we must be even more ambitious and overcome Framework Decision 2008/841, which risks already being a blunt weapon, as it is no longer adapted to the characteristics of modern criminal organizations that are now manifesting themselves as real global economic operators with a strong entrepreneurial vocation. We owe it to all honest citizens and to all those who, in the fight against organised crime, have sacrificed their lives, such as Rocco Chinnici, my father.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 2021 was an important year for the protection of the European Union's financial interests and marked by significant innovations. In fact, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has finally started its investigative activities, the first significant results of which already show how much its full operationalisation was now necessary, and the Recovery and Resilience Facility, an important pillar of the Union’s response to the pandemic crisis, has entered into force, together with the 2021-2027 MFF, an unprecedented amount of resources, which requires a decisive strengthening of activities to prevent and combat irregularities and fraud, including and above all against the risk of infiltration by organised crime. And this is a commitment that must involve everyone, the national authorities, so that they take a truly proactive approach to detecting fraud against the European budget, the bodies and agencies of the Union, and I am referring to the EPPO, OLAF, Eurojust and Europol, which already bring fundamental added value in this area too, so that they can increasingly strengthen their cooperation and cooperation. All the institutions of the Union, including this Parliament, and all of us, are called upon to adopt a uniform and decisive approach to transparency in order to combat corruption, illegal lobbying, conflicts of interest and to prevent situations of so-called revolving doors. The European Union's anti-fraud architecture must therefore be further and increasingly strengthened. There is a need to promote the exchange of information, to overcome the fragmentation and discrepancy of monitoring and control mechanisms, and also to harmonise and harmonise legislation, including the need for a new, more modern definition of organised crime, which is truly common at European level and which is effectively adequate to prevent criminal groups from taking advantage of the differences between the laws of the Member States in order to infiltrate the legal economy of our countries. Protecting the financial interests of the Union and the budget of the European Union means protecting the rights and interests of European citizens, who today face a moment of particular difficulty due to the economic and financial crisis caused in our countries by the pandemic and then further aggravated by the consequences of the war in Ukraine. Ensuring that EU funds are spent exclusively for their benefit and in full respect of the law must be our priority, also in order to preserve citizens' trust in the European institutions. In conclusion, President, I would like to thank my fellow rapporteur, Mrs Pignedoli, and the other fellow shadow rapporteurs for their work, in full cooperation with the common objective, shared by the President and all members of the CONT Committee, of strengthening the protection of the Union's financial interests.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I wish President Murphy well in his new post and I thank him for his annual report, which gives a positive assessment of the reliability of the EU's accounts and the legality and regularity of revenue. The increase in the estimated level of error in EU budget expenditure and the resulting negative opinion for the third year in a row are of concern. At such a difficult time, when war increases the risks to the EU budget, it is all the more necessary to ensure that European funds are used properly. It is therefore necessary for the institutions, all institutions, to strive to give the Court’s recommendations the right follow-up, to promote the sharing of best practices in controls by Member States, to conduct more targeted ex-ante verifications and to strengthen monitoring of the application of procurement rules. Finally, I welcome the specific focus on RRF spending, which is key to financially supporting Member States.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in Europe every two minutes a child is declared missing, about 300 000 in a year according to Amber Alert, and in my country, Italy, in the first four months of 2022 alone there were 3 589 missing children. Escapes, cases of parental abduction, disappearance of migrant children, lost children, criminal abductions, and to counter this dramatic phenomenon, existing European instruments, such as the Brussels IIa Regulation and the single European number, are still not sufficient. As co-chair of the Intergroup on the Rights of the Child, I therefore strongly support the establishment of a comprehensive European framework for missing children, aimed at strengthening the relevant legislation, perhaps also by extending the mandate of the European Centre to combat online sexual abuse, in order to ensure coordination of hotlines at Union level, strengthen cooperation between competent authorities and support for NGOs operating in different countries of the Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the rapporteur and the other shadow rapporteurs for the work they have done together on this report, which, given the exceptional nature of the year 2020, is of particular importance. Indeed, managing the pandemic has created new and increased risks, both in terms of revenue and expenditure, and potential new opportunities for fraudsters, including organised crime groups. It is therefore necessary to ensure maximum transparency, in particular in the management of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, by increasing and strengthening monitoring and control systems, which need to be harmonised along with definitions. Above all, the European Union's anti-fraud and anti-corruption architecture must be strengthened by providing OLAF, the EPPO, Eurojust and Europol with the necessary tools and resources. There is still a need to step up synergy and exchange of information and operational complementarity with EU and national bodies, as is happening in the context of the Next Generation EU - Law Enforcement Forum, jointly launched by Europol and Italy. All to protect the financial interests of the European Union.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Parliament, the only institution of the Union directly elected by the citizens, does not have a general right of legislative initiative like the national parliaments do. An atypical institutional architecture, therefore, which represents a clear democratic deficit, difficult to understand for European citizens. This institutional imbalance is particularly evident in the area of freedom, security and justice, where the European Council, by defining, in accordance with Article 68 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union, the strategies for legislative and operational planning, de facto has a right of initiative in all sensitive matters which directly affect the fundamental freedoms of European citizens. Equipping the European Parliament with the right of legislative initiative, as also called for by the Conference on the Future of Europe, will also strengthen the Union's action in preventing and countering backsliding on respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law, in order to better protect European citizens.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in 2020 the EU agencies were able to adapt well to the difficult situation caused by the pandemic, promptly activating business continuity plans to address critical issues, so as to ensure functionality in the work and well-being of staff. The Court's positive opinions on the reliability of the accounts of all agencies, on the regularity and legality of revenue and, with a few exceptions, on the payments underlying the accounts should therefore be welcomed. The number of observations still identifying room for improvement also decreased compared to the previous year. However, weaknesses in internal controls, procurement procedures and budget management need to be addressed in order to ensure increasing transparency and financial correctness, and gender balance needs to be strengthened, especially in senior roles. Finally, a comment on Frontex, for which it is necessary to shed full light on the outcome of the OLAF investigation, which is still ongoing, on the problems identified and for them to be fully implemented by the Agency under the conditions laid down for this Parliament.