The new special committee on organised crime in the European Parliament proposed to include a Union-wide definition of mafia-related crimes, the possibility of seizing criminal assets and using them to benefit the community, new rules on public procurement and the creation of an EU prosecutor, among other things, to tackle the mafia.

MEPs at the special committee on organised crime in the European Parliament debated a set of proposals on organised crime, corruption and money laundering in order to tackle the mafia in the EU. Among of the proposals to be included in the package, they proposed to include a Union-wide definition of mafia-related crimes. While Italy has a specific criminal code for them, Denmark and Sweden lack any specific legal provisions and Spain and the UK, among others, follow different policing and criminal-justice approaches. Moreover, an EU prosecutor should be established. His or her office would be in charge of coordinating efforts to defend member states' financial interests and giving input to national authorities, for instance in tackling fraud in accessing EU funds. In August 2010, it was published that 14 of the 27 EU Member States have not put the rules relating to cross-border crime in place.

Measures adopted in one EU country to exclude firms from public tenders should also be applicable immediately in the whole of the Union in order to cut off one of the most lucrative sources of finance for organised crime, say MEPs in the debate. Exclusion should be enforced in case of any serious offence against a public administration and take place before the final judgment is made.

MEPs also discussed four separate papers on asset confiscation, drug cartels, trafficking in human beings and cybercrime. They also agreed that it should be possible to seize criminal property as a preventive measure, before any conviction is handed down, as is the case in Italy, the UK and Ireland, to preclude mafia organisations from having any havens for their assets.