MP Antti Kaikkonen (ALDE) in Council of Europe, Strasbourg April 2010

Piracy - a crime and a challenge for democracies

Sea piracy is something that an average person links to an imaginary World. It has been told about in the stories of our childhood. Unfortunately, nowadays, the reality is more miraculous than the fable. Sea piracy is a huge problem in the Gulf of Aden, in the east coast of Somalia and also in the Indian Ocean. Annually up to 20 000 cargo ships use the seaways between Africa, Asia and Europe. Those ships carry almost 30 % of Europe's oil and gas needs. It's a huge amount and sea piracy is a huge question, or I would say, a huge danger. Heavily-armed men in fast boats are kidnapping the crews and robbing the cargos. The action is getting more obscene all the time. The more they get, the more they want.

There were 406 cases of piracy in 2009. The figures have been essentially less in the years before. The Somali pirates were involved in 217 cases so Somalia accounts more than double of the 2009 figures. Political efforts have been done to prevent the sea piracy; United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), NATO's Counter Piracy Coordination with EU and US-led groups et cetera. The purposes have been to create internationally binding rules to control the piracy. So far the results have not been adequate.

The question is who can control the piracy if not the most powerful organisations of the World?

The problem is the financial benefits the pirates get from their actions. The average ransom paid by ship owners has increased up to 100 million US dollars so we are not talking about small amounts. But the problem doesn't lay on financial issues only; there's also an ecological threat. In the cases where the ships carry radioactive or chemical materials, the consequences of explosions would be catastrophic.

The criminal prosecutions of the arrested people have proved to be almost impossible due to several legal, administrative and technical problems. In my opinion we need strong, more effective and more binding international rules and agreements to solve this problem. The Somali pirates, among others, are often treated as heroes in their home county. Criminals who kidnap innocent people and cause serious ecological and financial troubles, are considered as "good guys". It is not acceptable and the diversion of this kind of way of thinking should be changed.

It is not only question how to fight against the piracy. It is a question about how to prevent it on the whole. The Parliamentary Assembly can also play role in this by reflecting the legal avenues.

There's a fundamental need for international mechanism which would make it possible to adjudicate pirates. There's a need for harmonisation of national legislation as far as provisions on prosecuting pirates are concerned. And above all, there's a need for stronger international cooperation in general. Mr Chairman, this report gives us a good basis for the future work in this issue and it should be accepted.