Brussels, 11/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 10 December 2009, the European Commission expressed regret at the “mixed results” in member states' respect of EU laws to counter illegal drugs. EU Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner Jacques Barrot said: “European citizens rightly view combating international drug trafficking as a priority for the European Union, and this instrument indeed constitutes a first step towards a common approach in combating drug trafficking. Yet, the real progress made in this area on certain points has been diminished in particular by the lack of response by member states.” The 2004 EU decision laying down minimum provisions for crime and penalties for drug trafficking “has helped to establish a common core, but has not brought all of the results expected.” Five years on from the decision coming into force, it has not yet been fully transposed in the member states. Six member states have either not provided any information to the Commission about transposition or have indicated that they are still introducing the EU rules into their own legal systems (Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta and the UK). The outcome is mixed in the other 21 member states.
The Framework Decision defines precursor and drug-trafficking offences and provides for effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties in all member states. For drugs, the maximum penalties, depending on the seriousness of the offence, must range from imprisonment for at least a year (for a standard offence) to at least ten years (for a serious offence committed as part of a criminal organisation). ). Maximum penalties in the 21 member states are roughly equivalent or higher than those set out in EU rules but member states differ in the way they deal with factors like the amount of illegal drugs seized and membership of criminal gangs. Most member states have penalty reduction schemes and six member states have a special system for dealing with people who have made a break from drug-trafficking. The liability of companies and organisations when it comes to drug-trafficking is still an issue because some member states do not have any legislation establishing liability, while others have only provided patchy information that is insufficient to judge whether they meet EU rules or not. In practice, Eurojust has seen a sharp rise in the number of drug trafficking offences registered from 2004 to 2008. The Commission believes this demonstrates progress in judicial cooperation but in the information supplied by the European Judicial Network' contact point in ten member states, it is hard to draw a correlation of any kind between implementation of the 2004 decision and clamping down on drug-trafficking. There is a lack of tools to objectively measure how cooperation among the member states is progressing. The Commission argues that the decision has laid the initial foundations for a common approach to the crime of drug-trafficking in the EU and tackling the problem but much work remains to be done in order to harmonise Member States' legal systems and putting the legislation into practice. (B.C./transl.fl)