Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-16-Speech-5-036"
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"en.20000616.3.5-036"2
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"Mr President, as one of the longest-serving Members in the House my memory goes back right to the first committee of inquiry into drugs in the Community on which I had the honour to serve. I also have memories of other Community institutions. We have happily set up over the years several semi-European institutions in different Member States. Some of them have matured and grown and become quite effective. But if they do not do that they become flaccid, rot and become totally useless – just another expensive quango, not actually achieving any great results.
It is appropriate that at the moment we are assessing the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. We all too often have a tendency in Parliament, I am afraid, when we cannot to do anything more concrete, to set up another institution. That makes us feel good but does not actually change anything. So it is appropriate that we look at the work of this observatory in Lisbon at this stage. We should not kill it off until we are sure it is not being effective. But we have to accept that none of our countries are going to come up with a harmonised approach to dealing with the tragedy of increasing drug addiction and the murders, deaths and all that surrounds this dreadful trade.
I take this opportunity to say to my dear colleagues from all parties in the Netherlands: your policies have tended to become like a honeypot for the criminal element in many of the accession countries. In the last month alone five young Irish drug dealers – and I admit they should not have been doing it – moved to the Netherlands because it was more comfortable for them to be there. They have all been quite horribly murdered by people coming from some of the accession states to the Community. So it is important that we include them in the work of this observatory. It is very important that we take a very serious look at the policies within Turkey, an accession state, in relation to the provision of drugs and to the criminal activities surrounding it. The observatory in Lisbon cannot work effectively without very close relationships with the Europol agency in The Hague.
I would like to thank both the rapporteurs. They have done a good, serious job. They have asked very serious questions. The point was made that three years is far too long between assessments. I would like us to have another debate like this next year to really assess how effective the observatory is and how effectively it is using its very considerable budget in this work."@en1
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