EU Puts Anti Mafia Task Force In The Limelight

On 4 November 2009, the EESC plenary session witnessed the third award ceremony of the Prize for organised civil society.

This year’s first prize went to two organisations who have taken up arms in the war on the mafia: Libera and Confindustria Sicilia.

“Initially we planned to award three organizations. However, projects that we received were of such great value and quality that we decided to give prizes to six organizations”, said EESC Vice-President Irini Pari who chaired the award ceremony.

In his opening address EESC President Mario Sepi said, “The first-prize projects clearly show that civil society has played a leading part in extirpating the evil of organized crime in the society”.

He went on to underline that, “The problem of the mafia, or ‘mafias’, is not exclusive to Italy: against the backdrop of globalisation, this problem affects the development and growth of the whole of European society.”

“Our goal was to shake people up in Sicily. We called for all businesses to stop paying protection rackets extorted by the mafia. Those who did not comply with the request were threatened to be removed from our organisation,” said Giovanni Catalano , Director General of Confindustria Sicilia . It is an organisation that labours to promote healthy business practices so as to attract foreign investment. “One must not always wait for the state to provide solutions. Civil society can provide the push needed to solve problems”, added Mr Catalano.

The first ex-aequo prize was tied for by Libera International , which brings together civil society groups involved in anti-mafia actions in various areas. “We pushed for the law that allows for the social use of the confiscated Mafia assets.

We produce oil, wine and others on confiscated lands. These products bear the brand ‘Libera Terra’,” underscored Tonio Dell’Ollio , Director of Libera International.

He went on to underline the risk this activity entails, “We have been intimidated and threatened but we decided to go ahead”.

The second prize in the competition is tied for by the European Association of History Educators ( EUROCLIO ) and Volonteurope .

The former “aims at developing innovative history education whose central concepts are: multiple perspectives, critical reflection and the exclusion of egocentric thinking,” said Dr. Elbert Roest, a board member of Euroclio, upon receiving the prize.

The latter, which brings together over 1500 civil society organizations, strives to “motivate more Europeans into volunteering that is a wonderful expression of active citizenship,” underlined Piotr Sadowski , Secretary General of Volonteurope.

The third prize went equally to the French Fondation Nicolas Hulot pour la Nature et l’Homme and the Austrian Chamber of Commerce .

The EESC has awarded them both for raising awareness campaigns. Frenchmen have launched an action aimed at “showing how crucial the impact the European Union has on the environment and other related areas”, stressed Florence de Monclin from the foundation.

The Vienna-based Chamber has been singled out for the project aiming to “raise awareness of the merits of the EU membership in the country that does not rank high in all surveys measuring the satisfaction with the EU”, said Christian Mandl , Head of European Policy Coordination Department in the Chamber.

Topics: award ceremony, drugs, EESC, ego, EUROCLIO, European Association of History Educators, european soceity, European Union, Italy, mafia, mafia assests, organized crime, plenary session, prize, undercover police

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