Brussels, 10/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - A G8 summit was held in Paris on Tuesday 10 May, attended by various countries in Africa, to discuss how to combat the transatlantic cocaine trade, with France suggesting that the United Nations set up an international fund to help boost the capacities of cocaine-smuggling countries to clamp down. The idea is to use funds seized from drugs traffickers to finance the UN's international fund. Twenty-two ministers from Africa and North and South America attended the meeting to coordinate efforts to smash the new drug smuggling routes from Latin America to Europe via West and North Africa, and the smuggling of drugs from Afghanistan to Eastern Europe via Asia. The G8 will decide on an action plan to be submitted to the G8 summit in Deauville, France, on 26-27 May.
On Tuesday 10 May the European Commission called on EU member states and partner countries to work more closely together to clamp down on the drugs trade, listing EU action to this effect - the new EU border surveillance system (Eurosur) will have better surveillance technology to monitor drugs trafficking and help bring drugs traffickers to court in Europe. The Commission says that by the end of the year, it will unveil draft legislation on freezing the assets of criminal groups to prevent drug-trafficking in Europe, and the EU is due to unveil a European strategy to improve financial investigations in the EU. In Gödöllõ on 14 April, the EU signed a deal with the United States to work closer together to combat cocaine mugging from South America to Europe via Africa.
The Commission says that 1.5 million Europeans take cocaine every day and some 140 tonnes of the drug is smuggled into the EU every year. (S.P./transl.fl)