Child abusers across the EU face minimum penalties under legislation adopted by members of the European Parliament today (27 October).

The new rules also provide for the removal or blocking of websites containing child pornography.

The legislation was adopted by MEPs in Strasbourg today, with 541 votes in favour, 2 against and 31 abstentions.

National interior ministers had already approved the new directive, which is now expected to be formally adopted by the EU’s Council of Ministers in the coming months. Following adoption, member states have two years to transpose the provisions into national law.

“The European Union now has a clear and effective framework of rules to handle all crimes committed against children, [a framework] which intervenes at different stages to ensure the protection of children,” said Roberta Angelilli, the centre-right Italian MEP who steered the draft directive through the European Parliament.

Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, welcomed today’s vote. “With this directive we can make a difference,” she said. “We are making it easier to prosecute and prevent crimes against children, and we are strengthening the protection of victims.”

The legislation criminalises child sex tourism and online ‘grooming’ – seeking online friendships with children with the goal of sexually abusing them.

This will be the first time that all 27 member states will have laws specifically banning these practices.

The minimum sentences stipulated in the new legislation are three years in prison for producers of child pornography, and one year for consumers. Forcing children into sexual acts will be punishable by at least ten years in prison.

The new rules also allow member states from banning convicted offenders from working with children, for example, as teachers. Such bans may be temporary or permanent.

But the most controversial element of the new legislation concerns the removal or blocking of websites containing child pornography

Member states will be obliged to ensure the swift removal of websites containing child pornography. Should this prove impossible (for example, where such sites are hosted in an un-co-operative foreign country), national authorities may block access.

The European Commission had originally sought to make such blocking an obligation for the member states. But the view – expressed by the Greens, Liberals, many Socialists and some MEPs from the centre-right European People’s Party – that such mandatory blocking was futile, or even counter-productive, prevailed in the end. The adopted text now leaves it up to the member states to decide whether to block access to child pornography.

The negotiations between MEPs and the member states on the new rules lasted almost a year.

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