Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-13-Speech-2-336"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060613.31.2-336"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I think it is important this evening that we are having a debate on the Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon. This is a successful European agency, which has shown itself to be particularly effective at implementing our European strategy for preventing and combating drug addiction.
I should just like to mention a few figures on drug-taking in Europe, which I find quite shocking. These are data from the Lisbon monitoring centre itself. Every month, 1.5 million European citizens use cocaine, 9.5 million use cannabis, and 3 million use this drug on a more or less habitual basis, meaning every day. Moreover, the use of mixtures of drugs, often taken with alcohol, is rising sharply. Lastly, the use of ecstasy has also increased, and sadly it is being produced more and more often in Europe. There are over 1 million Europeans who use ecstasy on a regular basis.
I am pleased to note that this proposal is based on Article 152 of the Treaty, which allows Parliament to play a full role in this area. I should particularly like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Brepoels, for her report, which I consider important and well-balanced, and for her efforts to reach an agreement on the Commission proposal at first reading under the codecision procedure.
I believe that the compromise amendments tabled by the rapporteur will be accepted, thus making it possible to bring this report to a successful conclusion. I can say in advance that I agree with most of the amendments, with a few exceptions that I should like to mention quickly.
I am worried about Amendments 8, 15, 18 and 32 to 39. I shall just make a brief comment on Amendment 15, which provides for the European Parliament to issue an opinion on the centre’s three-year programme of work. The interinstitutional agreement gives Parliament a legislative role and not an executive role, and so I think that issuing an opinion or approving the programme of work of an executive centre would mean departing from Parliament’s role of political control.
Amendment 18 concerns an issue that is subject to the Commission’s horizontal competence, relating to the regulation of some 18 European agencies. This amendment cannot be accepted, not on questions of merit, but because political agreement is currently being sought on the horizontal proposal.
Lastly, Amendments 32 to 39 make me hesitate because they seem to have no bearing on the compromise that has been reached among the three institutions, in that they would give the Lisbon centre a practical evaluation role, which I think is frankly alien to the actual role of the Lisbon centre. The main purpose of this centre is to provide instruments to facilitate evaluation and monitoring by the Member States and the Commission. Consequently, I think it would be inadvisable to give the centre an autonomous evaluation role. Apart from these objections, I support both the report and the rapporteur’s amendments."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples