Brussels, 19/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - The EU25 Justice and Home Affairs Ministers approved, on Friday, the broad lines of the European Union's 2005-2012 strategy against drugs, which is to be launched by the European Council on 17 December. This very general strategy will serve as a base for two consecutive four-year action plans, the first of which must be submitted by the European Commission to the Council early 2005. The drugs problems is above all local and national, but must also be tackled at European level, with coordinated actions by different actors, as well as information and prevention actions that complete those of Member States, it is stated in the introduction to the strategy.
The strategy is founded on four things (reduction of supply, reduction of demand, analysis and scientific assessment, and international cooperation), the Dutch Justice Minister, Piet Hein Donner, told the press. It remains very general, without a timetable or quantified objective for countering the use or sale of drugs. In order to reduce consumption, the document evokes actions to prevent drug use and the transmission of diseases such as AIDS by drug consumers, as well as for treatment and rehabilitation. To counter this offer, the strategy points out that it is necessary to strengthen cooperation between the police services of the different Member States, better use of Europol and Eurojust, as well as the joint inquiry teams. The strategy recommends strengthening cooperation with specific regions - eastern EU borders, Balkans, Afghanistan, Latin America, Caribbean, Morocco - and in international organisations. It also calls for strengthened common analysis of the drug problem. The European Commission should evaluate implementation of the strategy each year.
The different national traditions can sometimes hinder the aim of coordinating counter-drug policies. Thus, the Council adopted on 26 October a framework decision approximating the definition of and penalties for drug trafficking in Member States after three long years of discussion, blocked for a long while on the question of soft drugs. Against Sweden and France, the Netherlands finally managed to have the text explicitly authorise continued tolerance for soft drugs and coffee shops. This framework decision fixes a joint definition of drugs trafficking and a certain harmonisation of sanctions, which range from "deterrent penalties" to a maximum of at least one year, 5 years or 10 years according to the seriousness of the trafficking and how dangerous the drug is. This is the main European decision for combating drug trafficking.