As the Special Committee on Organised Crime tables its final report, its chair, Sonia Alfano, believes a permanent committee is needed to truly beat organised crime.

Interview: The fight against ‘European’ Cosa Nostra

Sonia Alfano, the CRIM Committee's  work has just ended -

the special antimafia  and organised crime committee.

You've needed 18 months to convince  people. Have you succeeded?

It hasn't been easy,  but given today's result

we have managed to get all our  colleagues, even the sceptical ones,

to recognise the existence of mafias and  organised crime in all the member states

and the need to tackle this with a single  law shared by all the member states.

What legislative measures  have you managed to approve

The main point is the need to recognise  mafia association as a crime.

Also the need to ban  from bidding for contracts

all companies and people  that have been found guilty

and to ban people  from standing for election

for crimes  against public administration,

for organised crime  and other serious offences.

Laws to protect victims' families  and witnesses providing evidence,

who still receive  very little recognition.

With banking secrecy we know  that words will fall on deaf ears

without negotiations with third-party  countries, even ones in Europe.

Is there hope  that within a European context

there's a real desire  to move this dossier forward?

Switzerland, one of those countries,  has changed its position.

Recently Switzerland has been  much more cooperative.

But there's no doubt that abolishing  banking secrecy is a vital issue for us.

Fiscal illusion  is one of the explanations

for the 1,000-billion euro budget hole  that has just been discovered.

It affects and will continue to affect  the pockets of Italian and EU citizens.

Another issue is that all the big  European banks are being investigated

So this system of monitoring  and introducing limits

ensures that there is an increasing need  for strong and decisive regulations.

Were issues examined fully?  Can more be done?

Or do you think that's the end  for the committee?

It certainly wasn't easy  because my colleagues kept asking,

"Why are we talking  about the Italian mafia in Parliament?"

We had to show  that it's no longer an Italian problem.

They've infiltrated  the world of politics,

the world of institutions  and the world of business.

Other member states are in danger of  going through what we've been through.

When we showed that no member state  is immune to this risk,

they realised straightaway  that their leniency in the past

unfortunately encouraged the mafia  to take root.

Which dossiers  launched by this special committee

do you hope will be approved  in the next legislature of Parliament?

Definitely the dossier proposing  an EU public prosecutor. And then...

Tougher sanctions for mafia association?

Exactly.  We've made some recommendations.

Parliament and the European Commission  must get the message.

I hope that those of us who are here  after the election

and promote it with even more conviction  than we did within CRIM.

I think that Parliament,  after doing all this work,

can't just end all this  with a special committee.

The special committee CRIM  should become a permanent one.

Good luck with the rest of your work.  -Thanks.