Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 20 June 2007 - Strasbourg

12. Juvenile delinquency, the role of women, the family and society (debate)

  President. The next item is Katerina Batzeli's report on behalf of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on juvenile delinquency, the role of women, the family and society (2007/2011(INI)) (A6-0212/2007)

  Katerina Batzeli (PSE), rapporteur. – (EL) Mr President, Commissioner, the European Parliament is today opening the file of juvenile delinquency, a file which is constantly swelling with unsolved cases, with juvenile perpetrators and victims, with a society which is concerned and which is often stigmatised and reacts in a fragmentary manner, either by seeing these young people as a bad sign of our times and calling for them to be punished as an example or demonstrating indifference as to their fate or by highlighting the causes and the importance of their reintegration into society.

It is extremely difficult to identify the exact reasons for delinquent behaviour in a juvenile, as each specific act is expressed in the context of a complex process of their socialisation and social control. Nevertheless, it is possible to make two reliable ascertainments. Firstly, it is in no way the case that juvenile delinquency is a disease attributable to physical, intellectual or mental abnormalities and, secondly, in order to analyse the behaviour of juveniles, delinquent or not, we must examine the environment in which the juvenile's character is developing: family, school, friends and social setting. In addition, however, in this day and age, there are also external factors in their lives, such as the media, technology and especially the Internet, which catapult them into the adult world, often causing an aggressive reaction.

The purpose of our report is not so much to intervene in the national courts and penal systems, as our committee has no competence in this sector and the role of the European Parliament is very limited here. Our objective is to highlight the best practices applied at national level, to strengthen the exchange of information and experiences, to network the competent agencies and to give them institutional, organisational and financial support. The experience acquired in each Member State is an important indicator for the other Member States of the fact that innovative and alternative methods can work more effectively than traditional methods of locking up juvenile offenders and treating them like criminals.

An integrated strategy is needed at national and European level which combines measures around three pillars: preventive mechanisms, social integration mechanisms for juveniles and extrajudicial and judicial intervention mechanisms. However, in designing and implementing an integrated national and Community policy, it is of decisive importance to have direct social participation by all the relevant agencies, the regional and local authorities, the school community, the family, non-governmental agencies and the media. As detailed in the individual paragraphs in the report, the European Commission must set the following immediate priorities:

Firstly, it must set up a European Juvenile Delinquency Observatory based on national observatories.

Secondly, a European telephone hotline for children must be set up.

Thirdly, basic policies must be presented focussing directly on disseminating information and promoting the integration of preventive measures into existing Community programmes and on publishing a study in cooperation with a network of national exports leading to a Commission communication and the drafting of an integrated framework programme to combat juvenile delinquency, to be funded under a new heading in the Community budget.

The basic actions in the programme could include action to disseminate best prevention practices, measuring and analysing systems developed for the treatment of juvenile offenders, such as restorative justice, developing a European model for the integration and social welfare of young people and juvenile delinquents and, most important, networking the responsible services of the local and regional authorities.

Commissioner, knowing your political awareness of and proposals for child rights, it would be advisable for you to include this concern of the European Parliament in a European plan for young people. They say that bad children are usually sad children. Let us give them reason to smile.

  Franco Frattini, Vice-President of the Commission. Mr President, I welcome this report and I support the main recommendations made by the rapporteur, Mrs Batzeli. Juvenile crime is indeed one of the challenges we have to address in our modern societies. I will give you an example. A recent study conducted by the European Crime Prevention Network on bullying in schools showed that school bullying was, and still is, a significant problem in Europe, involving between one in seven and one in three students within any given school term.

As a first step, we need to improve our knowledge of the phenomenon by collecting relevant data. Statistics collected at national level are not easily comparable because of the differences in Member States' legislation and the different ways in which official crime statistics are produced. Considerable work has been done in the past five years by the European Crime Prevention Network to improve the quality and comparability of Member States' criminal justice statistics. Moreover, the Network's website has become an effective tool for providing information, both to practitioners and the general public, on Member States' prevention policies.

In addition, the five-year action plan on statistics, adopted by the Commission last August, will also include and measure juvenile crime and juvenile justice, so that we can have a broader view of this phenomenon at European level. As a result, we will be better able to identify policy needs and to develop indicators, taking into account the current work of international organisations, and will possibly be able to develop a juvenile crime prevention strategy at European level.

Prevention is clearly a key aspect of this area, and I share the rapporteur's view that we cannot merely use repressive measures to deal with this problem. We have to work on an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional basis. In particular, policies such as spatial planning, social housing, social inclusion, education and training, anti-discrimination and anti-racist measures, and integration of migrants, play an important role in preventing crime, in particular juvenile crime.

Moreover, the experience of networks operating in juvenile and urban crime prevention activities proves that all social activities to improve the environment, such as work on public spaces, renovation of squares, lighting, street cleaning, housing policy, facilities and social action services, contribute to an active and long-lasting crime prevention policy for young people.

Crime prevention must also provide an effective contribution to Community safety policies, which aim to avoid the very emergence of crime risks, in particular by fostering healthy and caring societies that offer young people the necessary social environment for a sense of identity, integration and a purposeful life. We have to be aware that Member States and the local authorities bear the main responsibility for implementing effective crime prevention policies. This is even truer for juvenile crime, which typically occurs at local level. The local authorities therefore hold the main responsibility for addressing the problem, ideally supported by the national authorities.

However, cooperation and supportive action at European level can play an important role without replacing Member States' national policies. I have already mentioned the European Crime Prevention Network's important work in collecting and facilitating the exchange of information. However, the network has also played an important role in exchanging experiences and best practice between Member States regarding effective prevention policies. Moreover, a comprehensive comparative study of juvenile crime in all EU Member States, as well as acceding and candidate countries, began last year and will be completed by the end of this year. I will, of course, make it available to you. Such studies will provide a sound basis for future European policy developments in this field.

Over the last few years, substantial financial support has been provided for policy initiatives in crime prevention through various Community-funded programmes. Under the Hippocrates and AGIS programmes, the Commission has co-funded more than 120 transnational projects in the last five years in areas such as the design of safe urban environments, the exchange of best practice on juvenile and urban crime and the development of good practices in the juvenile justice system.

In addition, in order to respond to the need for firm action against violence among children and young people, including bullying in schools, the Commission has funded, and will continue to fund, several projects regarding peer violence and bullying through the Daphne II programme, which will be succeeded by Daphne III. The emphasis on bullying in schools has increased in recent years, as already mentioned, and there are several interesting projects ongoing. The new generation of financial programmes under the new financial perspective in the field of justice, freedom and security, particularly the programme 'prevention and fight against crime', will, along with Daphne III, offer substantial financial support to national and transnational projects in this field.

Finally, these will be complemented for the same period, 2007-2013, by additional and substantial funding in the area of education and training, youth, culture and citizenship. You are, I am sure, familiar with the new Youth in Action programme. As I have already mentioned, education is one of the keys to preventing juvenile crime, so these programmes constitute another important contribution to long-term prevention policies.

  Esther Herranz García, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – (ES) Mr President, Commissioner, I would like firstly to acknowledge the work of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, as well as the experts who came to the public hearing that we held, because their contributions have provided us with extremely valuable knowledge with a view to tackling the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency in Europe. I would also like to congratulate Mrs Batzeli on this report and the honourable Members for their efforts and their work.

The increase in juvenile delinquency in Europe is a phenomenon that we cannot ignore, however. The minors committing crimes are becoming younger and younger, and that is extremely worrying. It is therefore necessary for the European Parliament to call upon the Member States to share their experiences and provide solutions in order to curb this phenomenon.

To this end, it is also important not just to create a coherent and effective strategy but also to take account of the specific role played by the family, teachers and society in general in forming the values of young people. I would like in particular to stress the role that we politicians must play in this field and I therefore welcome the initiative carried out in La Rioja, where the figure of the extracurricular coordinator was created, someone close to the young people who shares their leisure time outside of the classroom and who promotes their development and their social integration. Now we can enhance that initiative by means of more ambitious programmes, such as those explained by the Commissioner.

But when we talk about juvenile violence, we cannot forget social reality. Ladies and gentlemen, on 17 May 2003, Sandra Palo, a young Spaniard of 22 years old with mental disabilities, was kidnapped, raped, run over several times and burnt alive by four youths aged between 14 and 18 years old. Having spent four years in a youth detention centre, one of them will be released shortly.

Ladies and gentlemen, freedom brings with it responsibilities and our societies, which are free, must be responsible. If we want to prevent cases such as that of Sandra Palo from happening again, we must avoid any message that creates a sense of impunity amongst young people and adopt effective measures that restore the citizens’ confidence in the system.

  Lissy Gröner, on behalf of the PSE Group. – (DE) Mr President, Commissioner, may I express my particular thanks to Mrs Batzeli for this report, which was drafted on the initiative of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. The group was delighted to receive this motley and very comprehensive catalogue of proposed measures to deal with juvenile delinquency today. Implementation, of course, is primarily a matter for the Member States, but we in the European Union also bear responsibility for tackling this growing phenomenon. The Commissioner, as you know, presented a strategy for the rights of children. That is undoubtedly another contribution to the effort to develop something together. We must not wait until city suburbs are ablaze again before we do anything.

Above all, we must have an integrated approach to the solution of social problems. We must ensure that youth unemployment is reduced, that poverty among young people is alleviated and that social imbalances are redressed. We also have the structural funds, of course, which we can continue to use; in this respect the Member States have numerous options. As you made very clear, Commissioner, the Daphne programme offers a wealth of really good ways in which we could tackle the phenomenon of violence on a cross-border basis, and the Youth in Action programme also offers useful measures to that end.

I believe, however, that the Member States should offer far more in the way of efficient psychosocial care for problem families. We must strengthen the role of schools in the fight against violence and juvenile crime. It is our responsibility to provide assistance through our Lifelong Learning programme. I believe the responsibility of the media must be more strongly emphasised. This includes a responsibility to cut down on scenes of violence. I believe it is imperative that there should be a ban on violent videos and violent games for young people.

Let me close by thanking the Commissioner. The telephone hotline for children and young people is an important contribution that provides assistance and allows young people to be heard more clearly.

  Marios Matsakis, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Mr President, I offer my congratulations to the rapporteur on her excellent report on this most important subject, which affects, either directly or indirectly, the lives of all citizens.

Numerous studies tell us that juvenile delinquency is on the increase in Europe and this is a most depressing and worrying modern-day phenomenon, which seriously threatens our society’s future. Something must be done to stop and, if possible, reverse this trend.

Mrs Batzeli has dealt with the problem in detail covering areas of aetiology, prevention and treatment of delinquency. I consider the preventive approach to be of particular importance and, in this respect, the roles of the mother, the father, the family in general, the school and society are extremely relevant. At this point, I wish it to be noted that, in my view, it is not the role of women but of mothers that is of concern in this context. I also wish to point out that the role of the father is just as important and should perhaps be included in the title of the report.

I also note with regret that this report was adopted at committee level by women only in what I understand, and I stand to be corrected on this, is an all-women committee. Why that is so in institutional and practical terms I fail to fully comprehend. Nonetheless, I would have expected more input from men in the committee deliberations on this report. Why this was not so, I do not know.

It seems that juvenile delinquency is, to some extent at least, a side effect of so-called modern living and the demands put on parents by their complex socio-economic needs. Perhaps in our hunger for wealth and for career promotion, which in most cases requires both the father and mother to be away from home for many – too many – hours every day, we parents have reduced the priority given to our children.

On the occasion of debating this report, it may be wise to urge parents to pause for a moment or two and consider deeply within themselves what is most important in their lives: a higher income or more time spent with their children? Parents know the answer.

  Zdzisław Zbigniew Podkański, on behalf of the UEN Group. – (PL) Mr President, juvenile delinquency is a mass phenomenon and is, unfortunately, on the increase. This begs the question: why? Where did we go wrong? What methods and models should we adopt in the fight against juvenile crime?

Some call for us to totally abandon restrictive methods and to focus on preventative action and on fostering social solidarity. Others call for the role of the family and of schools to be strengthened. There are also a number of extreme voices calling for young criminals to be placed in isolation.

Unfortunately, popular analyses and concepts often do not include the main reasons for a flawed upbringing. These include globalisation, which worsens the economic situation of families, as well as mass, labour-related migration and the breakdown of family ties and contact between children and parents, which is vital to the children’s upbringing.

Secondly, young people are corrupted by the widespread availability of unethical and immoral material, which promotes aggression and violence. There is less cooperation between parents, socio-educational organisations and schools. There has been a break with cultural traditions and a weakening of the role played by the Church in educating young people. No positive, alternative solutions have been suggested.

It seems that the hearts and minds of rich, powerful people have been deafened by the rustle of banknotes. Money is now more important than humanity. It has crushed humanism and faith in the common good.

  Hiltrud Breyer, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – (DE) Mr President, many thanks to the rapporteur. We know that putting juvenile crime on the EU agenda is an important step and that the creation of a Community framework programme also sends out a truly positive signal.

It is true that we must take preventive action to ensure that children and young people do not become violent in the first place and that localities do not develop into hotbeds of social unrest. I find it regrettable, however, that so many Members here nod their heads whenever anyone claims that working parents are to blame, while these very Members are passive onlookers or even accomplices when facilities for children and young people are closed, children are virtually put out on the streets, and society deprives them of the opportunity to engage in a range of active pursuits.

There is one key issue that I consider very important, and that is the portrayal of violence in the media. I found it regrettable, Commissioner Frattini, that you spoke so little about this and that your child-protection report also makes so few references to it. We know that children are confronted from a very young age with horror films, pornography and portrayals of violence. In Germany 800 000 children are still watching television at ten o’clock at night, while we know that a young person aged 18 in the United States will already have watched over 200 000 scenes of violence. This shows how important it is that we should tackle this issue. Killer games which train young people to kill through simulation, whether played on a mobile or acted out, blunt their sense of empathy. I would have wanted the Commission to do more in this area.

We shall also be tabling more amendments to the report on children’s rights. These amendments call for a ban. The Member States must examine far more thoroughly whether child protection needs to be improved in the realm of the media. On this point we cannot afford to look away or to trivialise or whitewash anything.

  Ilda Figueiredo, on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group. – (PT) Mr President, one cannot speak about juvenile delinquency without analysing the underlying causes. After all, it is on much-needed prevention measures that we need to focus our attentions.

The root cause of the problem, let us not forget, is the deepening of the neoliberal policies that have led to social and territorial inequality, to youth unemployment – the by-products of which are much more serious than general unemployment – to high levels of poverty and social exclusion due to low salaries and the erosion of benefit systems, not to mention the weakening of public services and the impact of unstable work on the lives of families and on the education of children and teenagers.

Hence the need for a complete sea-change in the policies that have given rise to this situation; the time has come to stop pursuing these strategies. Living conditions for families must improve so that greater attention is paid to children and young people. Workers therefore need greater rights, including better salaries and fewer working hours without any loss of income. Better public services, including education, health, housing and social protection, are also needed. As we know, though, all of this involves different Community and national policy guidelines that prioritise people rather than competition and the profits of the large economic and financial groups.

It is time to uphold the values enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, of 20 November 1989, as we suggested in the proposals we tabled. We also stress the importance of specialist training for magistrates working with minors and all those who work in juvenile courts, so that we can invest in prevention before it is too late.

  Urszula Krupa, on behalf of the IND/DEM Group. – (PL) Mr President, the increase in juvenile delinquency is inextricably linked to the growing decline and breakdown of the family unit, as well as the promotion of a feminist view of the role of women. According to this view, motherhood is seen as a burden and an obstacle to self-fulfilment.

Juvenile delinquents mostly come from broken or dysfunctional homes, and are often raised by single mothers facing more than just material problems. Emotional problems in relationships between parents, the use of unethical and amoral methods used in a child’s upbringing, criminal models of behaviour, inappropriate living conditions, gaps in education and the parents’ lack of time for their children all result in feelings of rejection and of being under threat. They also produce an attitude of antipathy towards other people. A child that has been deprived of the bond with its parents often displays a tendency towards deviancy and criminality before the age of five. These children develop into antisocial individuals as the loss of a loving bond with people who are important in one’s life is the worst evil imaginable.

Another, separate problem is the destructive impact of a liberal education, where nothing is prescribed or forbidden. The media also promote a hedonistic way of life and there is a growing atmosphere of violence and aggression, which affects even the world of politics. We should not forget the role played by alcohol and nicotine addiction, as well as the destructive force of drug addiction and social stratification, which all result in a backlash. Prevention must be based, first and foremost, on re-establishing ethical and moral principles in all areas of life. We also need legislation and preventative action, together with judicial and extrajudicial measures. We also need to give women back their status as protagonists. A woman who is simply used to fulfil the aims of the Lisbon Strategy will not be able to raise her child properly.

An increasingly dysfunctional society – not only in terms of crime – requires us to re-establish respect for human dignity, the role of motherhood and of the family. Only children who are surrounded by love and brought up according to moral standards stand a chance of not breaking ethical principles and the law.

  Viorica-Pompilia-Georgeta Moisuc, în numele grupului ITS. – Raportul doamnei Bazeli tratează o gamă foarte largă de aspecte privind delicvenţa în rândul tineretului, prezentând în mod corect cauzele acestui fenomen extrem de grav, aflat în plină expansiune pe diverse paliere, atât în statele Uniunii Europene, cât şi în afara ei. Mă voi referi la două aspecte pe care nu le-am găsit semnalate în raport, şi anume:

1. Biserica - indiferent cărui cult îi aparţine, poate şi trebuie să aibă un rol din ce în ce mai important în sistemul educaţional al copiilor şi tineretului, în şcoală şi înafara şcolii. Cooperarea bisericii cu şcoala şi familia este benefică în prevenirea unor alunecări nedorite a tinerilor pe panta infracţională, în formarea unei mentalităţi sănătoase şi corecte despre viaţă, dar şi pentru recuperarea unor tineri aflaţi în situaţii critice. Educaţia religioasă în şcolile de toate gradele este cvasi-absentă. Ea ar trebui să-şi recapete locul pe care l-a avut în urmă cu mulţi ani.

2. Spiritul de disciplină şi de responsabilitate al tinerilor faţă de familie şi societate, faţă de chiar viaţa lor, lasă mult de dorit ca urmare a unor multiple cauze analizate, de altfel, în raport. În plus, în statele foste comuniste, constrângerile exagerate la care au fost supuşi tinerii generaţii după generaţii, au fost înlocuite acum, în ultimii şaptesprezece ani, într-o măsură mult prea mare, cu un libertinaj deschizător al unor periculoase alunecări, spre negarea valorilor naţionale şi europene şi copierea unor aşa-zise modele extrem de dăunătoare pentru formarea civică şi profesională a tinerilor.

Ca profesor şi ca pedagog, apreciez în mod deosebit efortul doamnei Bazeli pentru analizarea acestei problematici atât de complexe şi o rog să se aplece cu bunăvoinţă asupra celor mai sus amintite.

  Zita Pleštinská (PPE-DE). – (SK) In substance, juvenile delinquency is more dangerous than adult crime because it affects an extremely vulnerable part of the population at a time when one’s personality is being formed, and it very soon exposes adolescents to the risk of social exclusion. Currently, juvenile delinquency is even more disconcerting because of its mass nature, being driven by a reduction in the age at which criminal behaviour begins and the rising number of offences committed by children less than 13 years of age. Moreover, the crimes they perpetrate are increasingly cruel.

I welcome Mrs Batzeli’s report, which clearly articulates the causes of juvenile delinquency and tries to find answers as to how to gradually eliminate it. The most recent psychological studies suggest that the family is the first and only place where a child learns to love, respect and be respected. Dysfunctional families, in which parents do not take care of their children and in which the child does not receive the necessary love, understanding and support, breed most young offenders. A long time ago Plato regarded the family as the fundamental unit of social life and the main place of education. Auguste Comte described the family as a bridge between the individual and society and underscored its basic role in society.

The upbringing of a child starts in the first years of the child’s life in the family, that is, long before the child crosses the threshold of a school. Everything that the child is taught at school or outside school forms their attitudes and personality in the right or wrong way. Adolescence is a period when spiritual life is experienced more intensively, a period shaping one’s stance towards the problems of personal life in society, a period when extraordinary support is required in the family. The role of the family as an educational environment is not limited only to the first years of the child's life but continues until the child becomes independent, that is, finds a job.

Colleagues, there is truth in the popular saying that home is the hands that hold you when you cry. I firmly believe that we can reduce juvenile delinquency in society only if we create a sustainable environment where every family is able to strengthen its role of responsibility in society. The family must be our haven, the family must be our teacher, and the family must be our support.

  Edite Estrela (PSE). – (PT) Mr President, I should like to begin by congratulating Mrs Batzeli on her report, which contains sensible and urgently needed proposals, such as the creation of a European Juvenile Delinquency Observatory.

The rise in juvenile delinquency requires an integrated, effective policy at family, school and social level, one that helps pass on social and civic values and that helps integrate young people into society. At the same time, measures are needed to combat poverty and social exclusion. A society with glaring social inequality cannot promote social cohesion, nor prevent juvenile delinquency.

The images of episodes of youth violence in various developed countries, both within and outside the EU, are cause for alarm. What leads hundreds of young people to use violence to draw attention to their problems? Families, politicians and societies as a whole must come together and discuss where they have gone wrong and why.

The rise in juvenile delinquency is a very serious problem and we must ask ourselves why young people of 13 to 17 years of age physically abuse and even kill defenceless individuals as a form of entertainment. It is shocking. Handing out condemnation and criticism is not enough. What is needed is action, so that we do not, in times to come, bemoan the fact that it is too late to do anything, and end up like a father of these young people, who said he felt a failure as a father.

Experts single out causes, the first of which is the lack of supervision and the second is indolence. Without any occupation, school or work, young people become irresponsible. Added to this is a permissive culture with few or no obligations and unlimited rights. There is no sense that society steadfastly demands anything of young people; neither work nor merit is valued.

Some of these young people have been victims of violence or have been brought up in an atmosphere of violence at home. Some feel rootless and socially marginalised, while others copy the examples of violence they see on television. Even children’s games and cartoons cultivate violence.

  Kathy Sinnott (IND/DEM). – Mr President, this report makes grim reading. More teens are getting involved in delinquency at a younger age and their actions are more brutal. This is so serious for the young people involved and for everyone in society that we have to find solutions, but we have to be accurate in our analysis of the problem.

The report includes a list of the critical formative influences on children: families, schools, friends and socioeconomic circumstances. In the interests of accuracy, I would add to this list: mass media and telecommunications, by which I mean movies, television, computer games and the internet – and, now, the new mobile phone technologies.

Studies show that children spend more time with the mass media than with all the other influences put together. Articles 13 and 17 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is cited as the first authority in this report, seem to give children an absolute right to mass media and telecommunications and to give mass media and telecommunications absolute access to children. With their present content of violence, hatred, racism and pornography, and their use by child predators – all possible contributors to delinquency – should we see the mass media as having this absolute right and children having such an absolute right?

If any of the other influences on this list, such as family or school, were abusing or damaging children, we would remove the child for their safety. As we implement the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child in the EU and in Members States, we must rethink Articles 13 and 17. They were written in 1989, when people did not understand what the internet would be like in 2007.

We must also look at the role of fathers. Psychologists tell us that mothers give a child a sense of their own identity and their identity in the family, whereas fathers socialise the child and help them to know acceptable behaviour.

IN THE CHAIR: MRS KRATSA-ΤSAGAROPOULOU
Vice-President

  Amalia Sartori, (PPE-DE). – (IT) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank Mrs Batzeli for her work and the committee for the proposal we have before us.

When faced with a problem that is spreading throughout the world and producing alarming results at European level, in terms of both the type and the number of crimes committed by young people, I believe that it is right for us to ask ourselves what we can do. The idea of drawing up minimum standards suitable for all EU countries and sharing good practices would certainly be a useful step in tackling this growing problem. I agree, therefore, that we need the Commission to take up this issue.

As regards the content of the text itself, I feel it is important to point out certain passages. Firstly, we must continue to remind ourselves and others that children are of value to the whole Community; they represent our future. For this reason, it is in the general interest for children, from birth, to be put in a position where they have all they need in order to become citizens of the European Union. This means policies accompanying children as they grow up in the family, at school and at work, the fight against poverty, policies on housing and employment, public services, strict respect for the right and duty of schooling and cultural education until they enter the world of work, combating the spread of violence and zero tolerance regarding exploitation of and violence towards minors, even if this occurs within the family. We need to clarify not only rights, but also duties and the penalties involved.

  Silvia-Adriana Ţicău (PSE). – Doresc să o felicit pe colega Bazeli pentru acest raport. Delicvenţa juvenilă şi violenţa în şcoli sunt fenomene care există în toate statele membre şi pe care avem responsabilitatea de a le combate prin strategii şi măsuri la nivel naţional şi european. Este nevoie de prevenire, de includerea socială şi reabilitarea delicvenţilor minori, precum şi de măsuri judiciare corespunzătoare. Pentru că anumite grupuri de minori sunt mai vulnerabile - fete între 14 şi 18 ani, grupuri de imigranţi, persoane fără domiciliu fix - şi pentru că există riscul ca organizaţii criminale să utilizeze minori pentru traficul de stupefiante, prostituţie şi furt, este important ca incitarea minorilor la delicte să se constituie în circumstanţe agravante pentru infractorii adulţi. Măsurile educative trebuie să devină prioritare şi este important să existe acorduri de parteneriat între diferite instituţii precum şcoală, poliţie, instituţie şi autorităţile locale pentru dezvoltarea de centre de recreere pentru tineri şi incluziunea socială a acestora. Instruirea părinţilor privind importanţa supervizării copiilor şi îndrumarea acestora, precum şi conştientizarea pericolelor, le va permite acestora să intervină de la primele semne ale apariţiei unor probleme de comportament.

  Anna Záborská (PPE-DE). – (FR) Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to congratulate Mrs Batzeli on her report. The title of the report indicates that it is for women, the family and society as a whole to respond to juvenile delinquency. I should have liked men and fathers also to have featured in the title. Everyone is aware of their importance and I should like, in future, for us to be bold enough to mention the role of fathers openly in the various European policies.

Some very detailed statistics, particularly those of the Irish researcher Patrick Fagan of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, prove unquestionably that the emotional bond between parents and their children is formed in early infancy. Using evidence from police crime statistics, he demonstrates that the stronger the emotional bond is within the family, the less risk there is of juvenile delinquency.

The Lisbon Strategy lays down that 60% of very young children should have a nursery place. I am not questioning the wishes of young parents who want to pursue a professional career, but, in the light of the statistics and the parental experience that we all share, ladies and gentlemen, we must demand the highest possible quality for child care. Accessible child-care centres at an affordable price must be close to the workplace of one of the parents.

I thank the rapporteur for having stressed the importance of the quality of child-care establishments.

Eradicating violence among young people is a responsibility that the family and society must share. Society must establish the framework for State intervention. I refuse to depenalise and decriminalise acts of violence committed by young adults and I recommend that the European Union should set up an observatory on youth violence in order to institutionalise the education of young people.

  Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou (PPE-DE). – (EL) Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I congratulate the rapporteur on the excellent work which she has presented to us, the good cooperation we developed during the examination of the amendments and for giving us an integrated approach to the problem of juvenile delinquency.

Cooperation is needed between all the competent bodies involved with children in order to address this problem, which is not a new problem in human society. It has always existed. Allow me to remind you of something that impressed me as a child, when they told us a story about a convict who was asked who was to blame for the fact that he was a serious offender in jail and he said his mother, to whom he had taken a stolen egg at the age of three and who had accepted it. So it is not the parents who work – the parents always work – who are to blame; it is the parents who have no respect for basic moral principles and values who are to blame, it is the teachers who do not help children to recognise the prime major value of respect for human dignity who are to blame. That is where it all begins and that is what forces us to take measures and we must take measures and of course we must punish – or if the word offends you, let me mitigate it and say we must reprimand – young people so that they learn self-control.

Of course self-control is taught, as we have heard, from a very early age and teachers and the institutions to which we entrust our children from a very early age therefore have a responsibility here. Young people must learn to be upright and responsible citizens who can bring their character and skills to bear in the economic and social life of their environment.

I am not in favour of an observatory. The Member States must take measures and add special actions with funding mechanisms to combat the problem.

  Tadeusz Zwiefka (PPE-DE). – (PL) Madam President, I would also like to thank Mrs Batzeli for her excellent report. Of course, most of us agree with the view that juvenile crime is on the increase and is a growing threat.

Ways of dealing with and preventing juvenile delinquency differ greatly from one Member State to the next. Moreover, some politicians try to exploit this problem for their own specific political ends. By promoting only drastically harsher punishments and the introduction of strict discipline in schools, they are not only failing to solve the problem of juvenile crime, but may be making the current situation worse.

I fully agree with the rapporteur’s conclusion that prevention should be the main, and most important, aspect of the strategy for combating juvenile delinquency. Preventative policies clearly have long-term objectives, which means that they generally exceed the length of a parliamentary term and the term in office of a specific government. These policies are also more expensive in the short term and do not bring quick political benefits. Unfortunately, this means that politicians prefer coercive policies which produce fast and simple results, primarily in the shape of media coverage. Therefore, the main task is to completely depoliticise the problem of juvenile delinquency and to establish Community social frameworks, rather than to focus on the field of criminal law, which will remain within the remit of individual Member States.

I share the view that adopting a youth prevention and social solidarity code would be an important step forward. The rapporteur has stressed that the problem of juvenile crime should be analysed according to four criteria, namely family, schools, peer groups and background. Only this multi-faceted approach offers a chance of success. Thus, pro-family policies implemented by individual Member States should not focus mainly on offering financial incentives to have children. Instead, they should, first and foremost, aim to provide the broadest range of assistance and support to families after the birth of a child. I have no doubt that the most important link in this chain is indeed the family.

  Mairead McGuinness (PPE-DE). – Madam President, I would like to thank the rapporteur for this excellent report. I would like to bring to your attention a new report on juvenile delinquency published in Ireland in the last few weeks, which shows that four out of five young people in our detention schools have psychiatric problems. The Emotional Intelligence, Mental Health and Juvenile Delinquency Report was carried out by two academics from University College Dublin, and it is the first time that this type of research has been carried out anywhere in the world, so it is significant in terms of this debate. It shows that two thirds of all juvenile offenders suffer from conduct-disorder conditions such as ADHD. More than half are abusing drink and drugs; some began using cannabis and alcohol as young as nine years old and began taking cocaine when they were aged just 13.

The research shows that young people experience very high rates of psychiatric disorders, they engage in serious criminality and have significant deficits in emotional intelligence and cognitive ability. As I have said, it is significant because this is the first time such research has been carried out. Eight out of ten of the young boys in this research meet diagnostic criteria for at least one serious psychiatric disorder.

The researchers identified that these young people had, on average, experienced three psychiatric disorders. This equates to almost three times as many disorders among boys who had been referred to a psychiatric service because of the difficulties they were experiencing.

Unfortunately, the difficulties highlighted by this research are not addressed in our current service provision for these young people. The vast majority fail to receive any treatment for the problems they have, and this report highlights – and I would say this applies across Europe as well – the importance of addressing these difficulties. In addition to reducing the effects that mental health problems have on children’s functioning and development, treatment will lead to a significant reduction in offending behaviour and criminality and, therefore, has significant benefits for society and the legal system – in Ireland and, certainly, in the EU as a whole – so I would recommend this research to the House.

  President. – The debate is closed.

The vote will take place tomorrow, Thursday 21 June 2007.