Among the issues to be addressed are the harmonization of laws against consumption and illicit trafficking in drugs. One Dublin proposal is the payment of subsidies to drug producing states to discourage farmers from planting illegal plants. At a meeting in Bangkok in March, Gay Mitchell, the European Affairs Minister in Dublin, proposed using spy satellites to police areas where illegal crops are being grown. Particularly angered were the Netherlands, whose liberal drug policy has come under attack, and sovereignty-conscious Britain.
Observers say the national veto is the principal obstacle to the proposal.
The idea was originally put on the formal agenda in December 1995 by French President Jacques Chirac. Chirac proposed the idea while criticizing the Dutch for their lenient policy on drug users. A few months later, the Germans joined the French in insisting that the Netherlands abandon its permissive drug policy.