Declaration of the European Parliament on combating trafficking in children
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Articles 34 and 35 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
– having regard to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings,
– having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,
– having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas child trafficking is still a persistent problem, with more than two million children annually trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation,
B. whereas the development of new communication technologies increases trafficking in children, making it more difficult to manage this phenomenon,
C. whereas national authorities and NGOs in the Member States are still not acting effectively against child trafficking, due to insufficient cross-border cooperation, lack of specialised training or inadequate implementation of existing legal standards,
1. Calls on the Member States to recognise the fight against child trafficking as a priority objective in their national child protection policies;
2. Calls for the European Parliament and the Council to provide the necessary resources in the framework of the Commission's strategy on promoting and safeguarding children's rights;
3. Calls on the Member States to continue actively cooperating and exchanging knowledge and experience with the relevant EU authorities and NGOs, in order to prevent and combat child trafficking, and provide adequate treatment for victims of such trafficking;
4. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council and the Commission.
List of signatories
Adamos Adamou, Vittorio Agnoletto, Alexander Alvaro, Jan Andersson, Georgs Andrejevs, Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Emmanouil Angelakas, Rapisardo Antinucci, Kader Arif, Stavros Arnaoutakis, Elspeth Attwooll, Jean-Pierre Audy, Margrete Auken, Inés Ayala Sender, Liam Aylward, Pilar Ayuso, Maria Badia i Cutchet, Mariela Velichkova Baeva, Enrique Barón Crespo, Paolo Bartolozzi, Alessandro Battilocchio, Katerina Batzeli, Edit Bauer, Jean Marie Beaupuy, Zsolt László Becsey, Ivo Belet, Irena Belohorská, Monika Beňová, Giovanni Berlinguer, Slavi Binev, Sebastian Valentin Bodu, Herbert Bösch, Guy Bono, Josep Borrell Fontelles, Victor Boştinaru, Costas Botopoulos, Catherine Boursier, Bernadette Bourzai, John Bowis, Sharon Bowles, Emine Bozkurt, Iles Braghetto, Mihael Brejc, Frieda Brepoels, Hiltrud Breyer, Jan Březina, Ieke van den Burg, Niels Busk, Cristian Silviu Buşoi, Philippe Busquin, Jerzy Buzek, Mogens Camre, Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos, Marie-Arlette Carlotti, Giorgio Carollo, Paulo Casaca, Michael Cashman, Françoise Castex, Pilar del Castillo Vera, Giusto Catania, Jean-Marie Cavada, Alejandro Cercas, Giulietto Chiesa, Ole Christensen, Sylwester Chruszcz, Luigi Cocilovo, Carlos Coelho, Dorette Corbey, Giovanna Corda, Thierry Cornillet, Jean Louis Cottigny, Michael Cramer, Corina Creţu, Gabriela Creţu, Brian Crowley, Magor Imre Csibi, Marek Aleksander Czarnecki, Ryszard Czarnecki, Hanne Dahl, Daniel Dăianu, Dragoş Florin David, Chris Davies, Bairbre de Brún, Véronique De Keyser, Panayiotis Demetriou, Gérard Deprez, Proinsias De Rossa, Marielle De Sarnez, Marie-Hélène Descamps, Harlem Désir, Christine De Veyrac, Mia De Vits, Jolanta Dičkutė, Alexandra Dobolyi, Valdis Dombrovskis, Beniamino Donnici, Avril Doyle, Mojca Drčar Murko, Bárbara Dührkop Dührkop, Andrew Duff, Árpád Duka-Zólyomi, Constantin Dumitriu, Lena Ek, Saïd El Khadraoui, Maria da Assunção Esteves, Edite Estrela, Harald Ettl, Jill Evans, Göran Färm, Richard Falbr, Emanuel Jardim Fernandes, Elisa Ferreira, Ilda Figueiredo, Roberto Fiore, Věra Flasarová, Nicole Fontaine, Glyn Ford, Armando França, Duarte Freitas, Urszula Gacek, Kinga Gál, Milan Gaľa, Vicente Miguel Garcés Ramón, Iratxe García Pérez, Jean-Paul Gauzès, Evelyne Gebhardt, Eugenijus Gentvilas, Georgios Georgiou, Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg, Claire Gibault, Adam Gierek, Maciej Marian Giertych, Neena Gill, Robert Goebbels, Bogdan Golik, Bruno Gollnisch, Ana Maria Gomes, Donata Gottardi, Hélène Goudin, Genowefa Grabowska, Martí Grau i Segú, Louis Grech, Nathalie Griesbeck, Lissy Gröner, Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven, Mathieu Grosch, Françoise Grossetête, Lilli Gruber, Ignasi Guardans Cambó, Pedro Guerreiro, Umberto Guidoni, Zita Gurmai, Catherine Guy-Quint, Fiona Hall, Małgorzata Handzlik, Gábor Harangozó, Malcolm Harbour, Marian Harkin, Joel Hasse Ferreira, Satu Hassi, Anna Hedh, Gyula Hegyi, Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, Edit Herczog, Esther Herranz García, Jim Higgins, Jens Holm, Mary Honeyball, Richard Howitt, Ján Hudacký, Ian Hudghton, Stephen Hughes, Alain Hutchinson, Filiz Hakaeva Hyusmenova, Iliana Malinova Iotova, Mikel Irujo Amezaga, Carlos José Iturgaiz Angulo, Lily Jacobs, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, Stanisław Jałowiecki, Lívia Járóka, Pierre Jonckheer, Romana Jordan Cizelj, Madeleine Jouye de Grandmaison, Jelko Kacin, Filip Kaczmarek, Gisela Kallenbach, Ioannis Kasoulides, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Piia-Noora Kauppi, Metin Kazak, Glenys Kinnock, Evgeni Kirilov, Ewa Klamt, Wolf Klinz, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Jaromír Kohlíček, Maria Eleni Koppa, Magda Kósáné Kovács, Miloš Koterec, Guntars Krasts, Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis, Urszula Krupa, Wiesław Stefan Kuc, Sepp Kusstatscher, Zbigniew Krzysztof Kuźmiuk, André Laignel, Alain Lamassoure, Stavros Lambrinidis, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Vytautas Landsbergis, Esther De Lange, Raymond Langendries, Vincenzo Lavarra, Henrik Lax, Johannes Lebech, Stéphane Le Foll, Roselyne Lefrançois, Bernard Lehideux, Jörg Leichtfried, Jo Leinen, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Katalin Lévai, Janusz Lewandowski, Bogusław Liberadzki, Marie-Noëlle Lienemann, Kartika Tamara Liotard, Pia Elda Locatelli, Eleonora Lo Curto, Antonio López-Istúriz White, Andrea Losco, Patrick Louis, Caroline Lucas, Sarah Ludford, Astrid Lulling, Elizabeth Lynne, Marusya Ivanova Lyubcheva, Jules Maaten, Linda McAvan, Arlene McCarthy, Mary Lou McDonald, Mairead McGuinness, Jamila Madeira, Eugenijus Maldeikis, Ramona Nicole Mănescu, Vladimír Maňka, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Helmuth Markov, Sérgio Marques, David Martin, Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez, Jan Tadeusz Masiel, Antonio Masip Hidalgo, Marios Matsakis, Maria Matsouka, Mario Mauro, Manolis Mavrommatis, Hans-Peter Mayer, Jaime Mayor Oreja, Manuel Medina Ortega, Erik Meijer, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Emilio Menéndez del Valle, Marianne Mikko, Miroslav Mikolášik, Gay Mitchell, Nickolay Mladenov, Viktória Mohácsi, Claude Moraes, Javier Moreno Sánchez, Eluned Morgan, Luisa Morgantini, Philippe Morillon, Elisabeth Morin, Roberto Musacchio, Cristiana Muscardini, Joseph Muscat, Riitta Myller, Pasqualina Napoletano, Juan Andrés Naranjo Escobar, Cătălin-Ioan Nechifor, Catherine Neris, Bill Newton Dunn, Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, Angelika Niebler, Lambert van Nistelrooij, Vural Öger, Cem Özdemir, Péter Olajos, Jan Olbrycht, Gérard Onesta, Dumitru Oprea, Josu Ortuondo Larrea, Siiri Oviir, Reino Paasilinna, Maria Grazia Pagano, Justas Vincas Paleckis, Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, Vladko Todorov Panayotov, Pier Antonio Panzeri, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Atanas Paparizov, Georgios Papastamkos, Neil Parish, Ioan Mircea Paşcu, Alojz Peterle, Maria Petre, Rihards Pīks, Józef Pinior, Gianni Pittella, Francisca Pleguezuelos Aguilar, Zita Pleštinská, Rovana Plumb, Anni Podimata, Zdzisław Zbigniew Podkański, Lydie Polfer, José Javier Pomés Ruiz, Mihaela Popa, Nicolae Vlad Popa, Christa Prets, Pierre Pribetich, Vittorio Prodi, John Purvis, Bilyana Ilieva Raeva, Miloslav Ransdorf, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, José Ribeiro e Castro, Teresa Riera Madurell, Karin Riis-Jørgensen, Giovanni Rivera, Maria Robsahm, Michel Rocard, Bogusław Rogalski, Zuzana Roithová, Luca Romagnoli, Raül Romeva i Rueda, Dariusz Rosati, Wojciech Roszkowski, Libor Rouček, Martine Roure, Heide Rühle, Eoin Ryan, Guido Sacconi, Aloyzas Sakalas, Katrin Saks, José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, María Isabel Salinas García, Antolín Sánchez Presedo, Manuel António dos Santos, Daciana Octavia Sârbu, Christel Schaldemose, Olle Schmidt, Pál Schmitt, György Schöpflin, Inger Segelström, Esko Seppänen, Adrian Severin, Czesław Adam Siekierski, Brian Simpson, Kathy Sinnott, Peter Skinner, Csaba Sógor, Renate Sommer, Søren Bo Søndergaard, María Sornosa Martínez, Jean Spautz, Bart Staes, Grażyna Staniszewska, Gabriele Stauner, Petya Stavreva, Dirk Sterckx, Struan Stevenson, Catherine Stihler, Theodor Dumitru Stolojan, Dimitar Stoyanov, Margie Sudre, Eva-Britt Svensson, József Szájer, István Szent-Iványi, Hannu Takkula, Charles Tannock, Andres Tarand, Britta Thomsen, Marianne Thyssen, Silvia-Adriana Ţicău, Gary Titley, Patrizia Toia, László Tőkés, Ewa Tomaszewska, Witold Tomczak, Jacques Toubon, Antonios Trakatellis, Catherine Trautmann, Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Evangelia Tzampazi, Feleknas Uca, Vladimir Urutchev, Inese Vaidere, Nikolaos Vakalis, Adina-Ioana Vălean, Johan Van Hecke, Anne Van Lancker, Daniel Varela Suanzes-Carpegna, Ari Vatanen, Yannick Vaugrenard, Riccardo Ventre, Donato Tommaso Veraldi, Bernadette Vergnaud, Kristian Vigenin, Dominique Vlasto, Diana Wallis, Graham Watson, Renate Weber, Åsa Westlund, Glenis Willmott, Janusz Wojciechowski, Corien Wortmann-Kool, Francis Wurtz, Anna Záborská, Jan Zahradil, Zbigniew Zaleski, Iva Zanicchi, Andrzej Tomasz Zapałowski, Tatjana Ždanoka, Dushana Zdravkova, Roberts Zīle, Gabriele Zimmer, Jaroslav Zvěřina, Tadeusz Zwiefka