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DIPLOMA IN TRANSLATION
DT/2003/ENGLISH/PAPER 1
PAPER 1: GENERAL TRANSLATION WITH OPTIONAL
ANNOTATIONS
For
information only, not to be translated: the following was taken from a speech
on security at international football matches delivered at the Plenary Session
of the European Parliament in April 2002, by a Member of the PSE Group of the
Party of European Socialists. Translate into your target language for a general
readership.
TRANSLATION TO BEGIN HERE:
Mr President,
Colleagues,
Firstly I would like to inform the House
that the PSE Group welcomes this report and the measures in it intended to
prevent the activities of hooligans and organised thugs at matches. We will,
however, need to monitor the way these monitoring centres carry out their
functions to ensure that the football community is fully engaged in the
exchange of information. Most important of all is the need to ensure adequate
resources both in financial and personnel terms.
On Friday, I visited the football
intelligence unit in Greater Manchester police service. Unfortunately, we have
a wealth of experience and expertise in tackling football related violence in
my city. The Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has read
this report and he welcomes the initiative in the light of what he calls
“different standards in dealing, for example, with Manchester United away
fixtures and England away fixtures”. On Friday, the unit was preparing for two
key matches on Saturday. One of those was Oldham versus Stoke City: the last
time these two teams had met, known hooligans had rampaged through the town,
wrecking property and attacking people. In the UK we have pro-active football
legislation to deal with our hooligan problems. This allows us to impose
banning orders; so, when a hundred of those fans arrived in Oldham, they were
immediately arrested because they are banned from attending any matches. Those
banning orders also apply to international matches.
The football intelligence unit has a
sophisticated database of so-called “football prominents”, using the latest
digital image technology to update and record cases. Let me tell you where the
unit believes the EU information exchange system has to do better: 150 fans
were deported from Charleroi in June 2000. Among those arriving in Manchester
airport were Belgian nationals, some of whom may not have been involved in
hooliganism at all. Rounding up and deportation without prosecution does
nothing to help the intelligence network on hooliganism. A list of the
deportees was then sent to the intelligence unit: very useful as far as it
went, but the accompanying report contained no information. Officers could not
read it because it was not in English, and they could not act on it because the
information did not allow for any further action due to prosecution or
conviction. During Euro ’96, German fans arrived in Manchester. As a result of
German data protection and privacy laws, no list of known hooligans could be
passed on to the local intelligence forces and the officers working in the unit
therefore had no information accessible in a usable format to tackle the
hooligans. So there is an issue here in that we do need to standardise our
information formats while recognising that there are different cultures on
policing and information collection across the EU.
We need to deal with hooliganism
pro-actively not re-actively. On the issue of cost, no doubt it would be useful
to have a study on whether clubs should pay more for the policing of
hooliganism. The difficulty is, however, who pays those costs after hours in
cities where football hooligans are still engaged in activities.
In 2004 we will be hosting the final of
the European championships at Old Trafford in Manchester. Our priority has to
be to protect the law-abiding supporter and clamp down on hooligans who spoil
the game. We need a practical, pro-active approach to information sharing for
national monitoring centres. Their existence alone will not guarantee the end
of football hooliganism. I therefore urge this House to adopt the report that
we are discussing as it contains immensely valuable recommendations.