Brussels, 11/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - In the margins of the Eurogroup meeting on Monday evening in Luxembourg, the Economy and Finance Ministers of the EU discussed the distribution of the sum of 1.25 billion dollars promised by Philip Morris International (PMI) to combat contraband and counterfeit cigarettes in the EU. The European Commission and ten Member States (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Spain) signed a cooperation agreement with the US cigarette manufacturer in July 2004 for a period of twelve years to combat illegal trade activities linked to cigarettes. In exchange, the Commission and the EU agreed to put an end to lawsuits being pursued against Philip Morris (see EUROPE 8745 and 8744). The ten Ministers concerned had discussions with the Commissioner for combating fraud, Siim Kallas, to establish the key to distributing this aid among the Member States (as a product of their GDP and statistics on seizures of cigarettes) as well as the part which will come from the Community budget.