Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-17-Speech-3-280"
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"en.19991117.8.3-280"2
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"Mr President, the European Union is very concerned about drugs production in Afghanistan. Its direct and indirect effect extends geographically far and wide. The country to hold the Presidency has decided that close monitoring of the situation in Iran and Afghanistan will be the focus point of the action it takes on drugs.
The negative effects on civil society, for example in Europe and Russia, Central Asia and Iran, cannot be underestimated. The European Union finds it alarming that the majority of heroin used in the Member States comes from the poppy fields of Afghanistan. The Union has noted the recent report by the UN drugs control programme, the UNDCP, according to which Afghanistan is, at present, clearly the largest global producer of opium. Its world share of production is 75%. In 1999 opium production grew by 100% on the previous year, reaching the highest volume so far, with a figure of 4,600 tons, which is partly due to the considerable expansion of the crop-growing sector.
The Council proposed an overall EU policy in an amended EU common position on Afghanistan, which was adopted on 25 January 1999. The main aims for Afghanistan are inter alia to achieve a lasting peace and promote an internal dialogue for Afghanistan by offering specific support for the key role played by the UN; in addition, to promote stability and development for the whole region through peace in the country, and to make the prevention of illegal drugs production and terrorism more effective.
Owing to the politically unstable situation in the country and the civil war, not one Member State recognises the Taleban government. A common position by the Union, however, urges Member States to maintain relations with all Afghan groups. The European Union has condemned the many violations of human rights that have occurred in Afghanistan, especially the continual and systematic discrimination towards women and girl children, executions carried out without trial and a system based on harsh discipline and tyranny.
Because the political situation in Afghanistan is critical, and conditions are not right for the creation of bilateral relations, it is difficult, in the opinion of the European Union, to participate effectively in drugs control activity in Afghanistan. The European Union has noted that the UN drugs control programme, the UNDCP, began its pilot programme in Afghanistan, one that made slow but steady progress, in 1998. The programme is based on the UNDCP’s commitment to financing development in special poppy field areas, to which the Taleban have responded by agreeing not to allow the cultivation of opium poppies in new areas, and to permit the UNDCP to control the opium poppy crop and commence action to prevent the illegal traffic of drugs and pull down illegal laboratories."@en1
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