Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen still present, looking at the Chamber, one might well imagine that drugs pose no problem to Europe and no problem whatsoever to its young people. But, unfortunately, they are a problem, and not just any problem; the truth is they are the problem. The huge increase in the use of drugs is threatening to destroy part of today’s generation and hence part of our society, while organised crime is threatening to undermine it. Drugs help a mere handful of people make a great deal of money in the organised crime sector; but they destroy countless lives and existences. I can back up what I have just said with a few figures provided by Europol and the Drugs Monitoring Centre in Lisbon. It is estimated that some 8,000 tonnes of cannabis and derivatives, 350 tonnes of cocaine, 60 tonnes of heroin and at least 50 million ecstasy tablets reach the European market every year. These are the latest figures available. And all of these drugs are taken, by more and more youngsters. If I tell you that investigations have proven that some 20% of young people have already used cannabis at least once and that an estimated 5 million young people take synthetic drugs, it should be enough to start alarm bells ringing. The producers and traffickers who deal in these drugs are part of organised crime. They ply their trade at the expense of young people, which is why we must do everything we can to combat this crime – which, as I said, is part of organised crime – in the Union and internationally with representatives from other countries in the world which are equally affected. I therefore welcome the Swedish initiative because it takes a step forward here. It is another piece in the puzzle of instruments which we need if we are to be able to make any headway. The first initiative on the transmission of drugs for the purpose of analysis and testing is designed to avoid abuse as the result of larger consignments and is a perfect instrument in the fight against drugs. Secondly, I think it is most important that analyses be used to check the origin of synthetic drugs. Both instruments are essential in the fight against drugs and organised crime. What we need to do is to extend the network of suitably standardised, quality laboratories. However, this alone would still be too little; we must have cooperation with Europol, which is working on the same agenda and keeps a list of synthetic drugs and similar products used for ecstasy and other amphetamines which are available on the market. This means that there will be no loose cannon or parallel work and that work will be carried out in cooperation with Europol. The third point which I think is extremely important is that, although the European Union is now an export market for synthetic drugs and candidate countries are buying from it, having become transit countries and countries of destination, we need to make all the instruments at our disposal immediately available to the candidate countries so that we can create a larger area of security, which is our goal. The objective, and I know that it is an ambitious objective, is to achieve a drugs-free society. It will be no easy task but these measures certainly take us a step closer to this objective.

Political group: PPE-DE