2016 Edition of MEU Madrid
We are glad to tell you about the third Model of the European Union organized by JEF Madrid. From the 19th to the 24th of September 2016, participants from all over the wolrd were able to understand how the European Union works and how their decisions are taken. In this eddtion, we had prepared for you an even more complete simulation than in the previous year as we counted with the European Commission too.
The topic:
That year we wanted our simulation to be as accurate and close to reality as possible. Thus proposed a real life problem that our European societies are nor facing, but that affects specially young people: we refer to sex workers.
The topic was prepared by the participants taking the role of the Commissaires in a previous meeting that will be held in December. A representation of the European Commission attended MEU Madrid to defend their directive that would be discussed during the model by both the Parliament and the Council.
Right now there is a myriad of different approaches that European countries have adopted regarding sex work. They vary from total banishment to total legalization, with some situations in between. Sex work can be regarded either as a laboral issue or as a moral one. According to treaties, the EU guarantees freedom of movement for workers and freedom to provide services. However, the disparities in legislation provoke that these rights cannot be guaranteed. On the other hand, the treaties forsee some restrictions to those freedoms in terms of public morality, public policy or public security. The development of new technologies and the capacity to provide services online beyond borders also questions the limits of the corresponding legislations.
The EC calls for dealing with this particular and set a European standard, so that freedoms and duties are clear. Its main will be:
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a EU legal framework regarding prostitution and their public advertisement, as well as strategies dealing with human traffic;
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a EU legal framework regarding the sex industry, notably the one regarding tpornography;
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a European approach to the online sex industry and the transnational provision of goods and services.
.You can read the full text presented by the European Commission here.