Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-20-Speech-2-406"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20091020.37.2-406"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"I should like to thank the honourable Member for this question, which allows me once again to pay attention to this huge issue which is damaging to the budgets of the Member States. This is again a matter where Member States act, but where cooperation between Member States is vital and also where our service, OLAF, is very active and plays an important role in fighting international cigarette smuggling.
OLAF has a clear strategy. Firstly, OLAF assists and supports law enforcement authorities throughout the European Union with their cases, and organises and coordinates Europe-wide operations: Operation Diabolo in 2007 aimed at counterfeit from China which is smuggled in shipping containers to the EU; Operation Mudan in 2008, to address the growing problem of smuggling of cigarettes by post; and Diabolo II, which had the same objective as the first Operation Diabolo, which took place in September 2009.
OLAF provides intelligence to its partners about the emerging threats and cooperates with Member States, so this is really an area of international cooperation. OLAF’s work demonstrates that this cooperation should be enforced, but I must also say that there have been two very important events during the five-year tenure of this Commission in which OLAF has been extremely instrumental.
These are the Philip Morris agreement, and subsequently the Japan Tobacco agreement in December 2007, where the biggest tobacco corporations admitted that they had some shortcomings in dealing with fair trade in cigarettes, and paid substantial amounts of money to the EU budget; they are also cooperating very closely to fight cigarette smuggling, which is not in their interests either.
These were very important achievements, and all Member States are signatories to the latest Japan Tobacco agreement.
We continue to cooperate in this difficult field, but I think that with these two big agreements, the landscape has changed a little and we notice modest progress.
The case referred to by the honourable Member, of the prosecution and jailing of a third country national, is a very important case, and this is one of the many international investigations coordinated by the Office on the basis of such an agreement. There have been many prosecutions in the EU based on OLAF’s work.
This is the first prosecution in a third country of a non-EU national directly related to the smuggling of cigarettes into the EU, so it also shows worldwide cooperation. I can produce several other details from liaison officers in China and other places. We all have an interest in enhancing this cooperation and combating cigarette smuggling."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples