Close up: EU to step up Mafia fight The EU has Italy's biggest and nastiest criminal gangs in its sights. Seen as Rome's problem until a few years ago, the unprecedented shootings of six Mafia members in the German city of Duisburg in 2007 changed that. A new European parliamentary committee will be unveiled this week and begin work next month. Its aim, to crackdown on organised crime and mob activities such as money laundering and extortion. Many MEP's are also pushing for a Europe wide criminal ban on Mafia association. Currently, the offence only exists in Italy. Better crossborder coordination is also being mooted. If agreed a new EU directive would empower authorities to attack and seize the assets of gangs across the bloc. To discuss the anti-mafia work currently being done in Italy, euronews spoke to Palermo's former public prosecutor Gian Carlo Caselli. Now in Turin, he took over in Sicily after the infamous contract killings of two judges there in the early 1990s. More about: EU Parliament, Europe, Mafia