PRESIDENCY SEEKS REALISM IN ACTION AGAINST DRUGS

Speaking at the 21 April meeting of Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, Mr Bartolomeo told MEPs that a realistic stance must be taken in the fight against drugs. "It is not an exact science," he said. 

The committee was examining the Commission’s 2005-2008 drugs action plan, adopted in February 2005 as part of the Council’s 2005-2012 Strategy on Drugs. 

In an own initiative report in December 2004, MEP Giusto Catania criticised the EU’s previous action plans on drugs for failing to achieve their goals. He pointed to a Eurobarometer study in 2004 which showed that drugs are easily available across the EU and the 2004 annual report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drug Addition which showed an increasing demand for cocaine and ecstasy. He recommended that the EU strategy should concentrate on rehabilitation for drug users rather than imprisonment.

The Presidency, however, backs the Commission’s stance that there is no one solution to the problem and that measures for health protection should be combined with action against drugs production and trafficking.