Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-16-Speech-4-232"
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"en.20000316.8.4-232"2
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"The Commission has examined with great interest the resolution concerning the threat posed by the development of illicit activities of criminal groups operating in several countries of south-eastern Europe. We share the preoccupation expressed in the resolution as to the risk of seeing the reconstruction and development efforts in the context of the Stability Pact being jeopardised by international criminal networks that engage mainly in trafficking in human beings, trafficking in drugs and arms as well as in smuggling of goods. Clearly a lot of these criminal activities have serious negative consequences for the Community and its Member States.
As you are aware, the European Council has shown its strong determination to fight against organised crime and has demonstrated the need for a coherent and coordinated approach by adopting in June 1997 an Action Plan to Combat Organised Crime. Although many actions envisaged aim to encourage cooperation between the fifteen Member States, the plan does not neglect the need also to develop wider forms of international cooperation. The tangible result has been the conclusion by the Council in 1998 of the Pre-accession Pact on cooperation against crime with the candidate countries.
As regards the specific question raised by the resolution and related to the situation in the Balkans, the Commission agrees that there is a real danger of massive development of organised crime activities if no coherent and coordinated action is set up in this region associating the various donors as well as the international and regional actors.
The Commission considers that the Member States have a crucial role to play in providing their expertise and human resources in supporting specialised projects in the fight against various criminal activities in the Balkan region, including the fight against corruption. The Commission considers that it can prove and provide a useful input to the Stability Pact by combining the Member States’ expertise and the Community funds in order to set up well-targeted anti-crime projects and activities. In this respect, the Commission is also ready to act as a coordinator and in close consultation with the special coordinator of the Stability Pact.
Furthermore, I have to underline that the Commission is preparing a proposal for a new specific financial instrument which will provide a global legal basis for the Community assistance to the whole region. An official proposal will be presented to the Council by the end of this month and we hope that a new regulation will come into force as soon as possible, hopefully just after the summer break.
The Commission remains convinced of the crucial importance of making all the necessary efforts to support effective measures for the fight organised crime and is determined to develop, within this new framework, regional projects covering the field of justice and home affairs.
In addition, the Commission is already in a position to announce that, under its programming of the assistance envelope of regional programmes for 2000, around EUR 2 m have been earmarked for projects within the field of justice and home affairs.
Furthermore, as regards trafficking in certain goods such as the smuggling of cigarettes, and insofar as this traffic also affects the Community's territory and its financial interests, OLAF has set up multi-disciplinary and multinational task groups. These groups work to combat organised crime whose transnational dimension has been demonstrated on several occasions. They have been established to provide support and operational assistance that focuses its investigations on the sectors and products which are most vulnerable to fraud, which is the case for cigarettes.
The results of the activities of these task groups recorded over the last few years are particularly significant. In 1996, for instance, cigarette smuggling, mainly in the transit regime, totalled ECU 800 m. The overall financial impact of fraud detected in this area in 1997 was an estimated ECU 1.6 bn covering Community own resources and national revenue. The number of inquiries against cigarette smuggling even increased in 1998, although the financial impact was lower than in the previous years. This can be explained by the continuation of large international inquiries and the success in the fight against cigarette smuggling from Andorra and against the black market in Spain. All in all we take these threats to the Community very seriously and will continue working hard to fight them."@en1
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