06-02-2007

In my opinion two issues will be prevalent in the coming years.

Firstly, there is the problem of collective violence – mostly occurring around big public events such as football games or musical concerts. This collective violence is different from other public unrest, such as the French suburban riots. Those riots could be explained for a large part on social and economical exclusion. The collective violence I am referring to seems to be more an expression of frustration.

Secondly, the trafficking of human beings is something that needs more attention. Especially the trafficking of human beings with sexual aims is now largely taking place out of the sight of society. There are data about illegal immigrants working in the labour market. These data do not exist for people that are trafficked to work in the sex industry. Organised crime is involved in most of the cases. To be able to fight this problem, coordination between cities is absolutely necessary.

The cooperation between police force’s of different countries should be further developed and improved. A general European framework for police cooperation is so far not working. The current way in which the EU has organised police cooperation is, in my opinion, a failure. Countries should be able to make bilateral agreements on police cooperation. And these bilateral agreements should be leading.

Another problem is that of judicial cooperation. In Europe, there is a general understanding of what’s a crime and what not. However, there are big differences in the idea of what the ‘hierarchy of crimes’ is. What is considered a priority in Eastern Europe can be tolerated in North Western Europe. In Southern Europe the priority is, again, on something completely different. This is makes cooperation on the EU level very challenging.

Finally, the cooperation between local authorities should be improved. A lot of the safety, security and crime prevention policies are developed and implemented on the local level. This local level is, however, not sufficiently represented in the European Union policy process.

In the first place we consult the European institutions on all issues relating to Urban Safety. Urban safety should be taken into consideration in all relevant policy fields. We have to lobby for our cities to be heard on the European level. It is one of our goals to, for example, explicitly integrate the concepts of security and crime prevention into the European ‘urban policy’.

Our second role is to bring cities together. If we want to cooperate, it is important to develop a common vision and a common approach on safety issues. For this, a lot of direct contact, discussion and reflection are needed.

I am looking forward to the further discussions on the future of the EU and the future EU constitution or EU treaty. In the version of the EU constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters, there was a lot said about a European crime prevention policy. I wonder what a future treaty will include on this topic.