Nicole Fontaine, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – (FR) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Prets’ excellent report tackles an extremely pressing and highly topical issue. At the very moment, in fact, when our societies are legitimately yearning to preserve the memory of what constituted slavery in centuries gone by, so that such crimes might never again take place, can we tolerate the continuation and development, throughout the world, of a new and modern form of slavery – sexual slavery – which is viewed by the traffickers as a run-of-the-mill commercial activity? The response – and a unanimous one at that - of Mrs Prets and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality is ‘No’.

It must be recognised today that in spite of media interest which, I might add, is only a recent development, people still have a poor grasp of the devastating physical and psychological effects of trafficking. It must be recognised that, up to now, the texts we have adopted with a view to combating, at European level, the criminals who increasingly turn to this activity have more often than not gone unheeded.

I therefore welcome the fact that Mrs Prets is proposing a series of measures relating, at one and the same time, to prevention, awareness-raising and repression, which is the integrated approach Mr Frattini was talking about. For the first time, the ground has been prepared for a genuine common policy for combating this terrible modern-day scourge.

Mrs Prets’ report is timely in avoiding the debate on what constitutes, on the one hand, trafficking and, on the other, prostitution. Due to the profound differences between our various sets of legislation, this debate would be liable to come to an abrupt end and to leave us powerless. I appreciate this approach, which is at aimed at effectiveness, but I also appreciate the fact that the taboo problem of demand has not, for all that, been sidestepped because, in the triangle formed by the actors in this tragedy – the traffickers, prostitutes and clients – it would be impossible, without being hypocritical, not to mention the clients’ responsibility in this affair.

I therefore hope that the points raised are upheld. They underline our Parliament’s awareness of the problem and its desire to resolve every aspect of it, that is to say to banish sexual slavery from our society.

I hope that the solid consensus demonstrated in the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality is repeated in our plenary, and I am convinced that the commissioners concerned, particularly Mr Frattini – who said as much to us - will hear our message and be very keen to make this fight a priority.