Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-04-Speech-1-049"
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"en.20020204.4.1-049"2
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"Mr President, I, too, should like to congratulate Mr Oostlander on the fact that he has made a number of valuable suggestions to improve the Commission proposal: firstly, strengthening the mechanisms for confiscating the profits of criminals who traffic in drugs. If we hit these people where it really hurts, namely in their wallets, this will be far more effective than stiff custodial sentences. Neither should we focus on the prosecution of addicts, but rather pour all our energy into prevention. This is a sound message which, with limited resources, Europe must take as a guiding principle.
However, this is where our paths diverge. I am delighted that, following a European trend to adopt a more realistic drugs policy, a majority of the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party will be supporting all the amendments aimed at distinguishing between hard drugs and soft drugs and at the non-prosecution of users, as well as the amendments which will restrict this proposal to cross-border, criminal drug trafficking. Let us concentrate our limited resources on the big criminals rather than the small users.
I, for my part, should like to warn fellow MEPs from the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats against engaging in token politics when they talk of dangerous signals which Parliament would in this way be sending out. In the final analysis, we do not yet have any say in this area.
My group also places question marks alongside two specific Commission proposals. It would be unwise not simply to limit the minimum maximum penalty of five years to certain crimes but to arrange for it to be applied to all drugs-related crimes. We will accordingly be backing the amendment for a restriction.
Finally, in our view, the arrangement through which informers would receive a penalty reduction in exchange for information about drugs gangs is going too far. This is a very sensitive matter in which different Member States uphold different traditions. To make an arrangement in this way, so suddenly, would be taking things too far in our view."@en1
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