Action to combat drugs: action plan 2000-2004

The committee adopted a report by Mrs Marietta GIANNAKOU-KOUTSIKOU (EPP/ED, GR) on the Commission communication. The committee agreed with the objectives of the action plan but felt that the Commission painted an overly optimistic picture of the commitment and performance of the Union and its Member States in combating drugs. At present, the overall budgetary resources implemented by the European Union appeared woefully inadequate and the monitoring of action weak. The committee therefore considered that the European Union should be allocated further resources to strengthen measures to prevent drug addiction and help drug addicts and to combat crime. It called on the Member States and the Union to show greater political resolve and, if it appeared that the need for more effective measures to combat drug abuse and drug trafficking could not be met with existing resources, to commit higher resources for both internal action (notably in the educational, social, health and medical scientific field) and international action. In this context, the committee called on the forthcoming Portuguese Presidency to convene an extraordinary 'inter-pillar' Council meeting devoted to combating drugs and to invite the applicant countries to attend. As far as the specific objectives of the action plan were concerned, the committee emphasized the need to use all available means to protect the under-18s as a matter of priority through preventive work and rehabilitative measures for addictive parents of minors, to consider increasing Community and national budgets alike and to pursue measures targeting new synthetic drugs. As regards international action, the report urged the Union to apply a coherent policy to combat drug production and trafficking, inter alia by providing effective help to the countries concerned. It also called for meticulous checks on compliance with the anti-drugs clause in international agreements and called for it to be accorded the same 'essential clause' status as the 'human rights' clause. The pre-accession strategy should give high priority to the fight against drugs. Given that the evaluation made hitherto of the success of the projects funded from the measures under the Phare and Tacis programmes devoted to combating drugs had by and large proved inadequate, the committee called for a fundamental review of thoese measures. Lastly, the committee called on the European Council to consider the resolution as recommendations for its meeting in Helsinki.