In presenting her report, Mrs COLOMBO SVEVO (EPP, I) referred to the five recommendations that had been adopted on this issue during the previous Belgian Presidency and established a general reference framework that would allow both the Member States and the European Union to adopt specific policies. The rapporteur welcomed a number measures in this area, including the major conference on trafficking in women, which had been organised at the initiative of Commissioner Gradin. Noting that those engaged in organising this form of trafficking ran very little risk, Mrs Colombo Svevo underlined the importance of adopting legislation that would prove more effective in combating these activities. From a legal point of view the report proposed to define the term human trafficking, which was essential, the speaker stressed, in order to identify more clearly those activities that really constituted an offence and to be able to make a clear distinction between the trafficker and his victim. Commissioner Wulf-Mathies thought that more effective collaboration was needed between the Member States in order to make trafficking less profitable. Prevention measures were required, as were measures designed to provide support to the victims. As far as the EU programmes were concerned, the Commissioner referred to meetings that were to be held with the countries of central and eastern Europe and to the conference on female victims of sexual abuse, which was at the preparatory seminar stage. However, Mrs Wulf-Mathies regretted the fact that the Commission had no right of initiative to take action in this area.