RESOLUTION on the fight against drug trafficking and the grave situation in Colombia

The European Parliament,

A. convinced of the need resolutely to take up the fight against the drug traffickers and those involved in the drugs trade thoughout the world, including the European Community,

B. deeply concerned at the gravity of the situation in Colombia, where the drug cartels have declared all-out war on the Colombian Government culminating in the murder, among many other victims, of Senator Luis Carlos Galan, a candidate in the presidential elections,

C. whereas the Colombian Government is engaged in open combat against the drug-trafficking organizations,

D. whereas this stance adopted by the Colombian Government deserves the support of the European Community and its Member States, given the threat which the drugs trade poses to the health and safety of our citizens,

E. having regard to the presence of foreign mercenaries as instructors in the drug traffickers' private militias,

F. having regard also to the problem of the cultivation and production of cocaine and heroin in other countries,

G. whereas, compared with the worldwide turnover of the drugs industry, now put at between $ 300 and 500 billion, the Community's efforts, amounting in 1989 to a total of $ 6,9 million under budget headings 6472, 6754 and 949, are paltry and, to judge by the 1990 preliminary draft budget, stand to be cut back still further,

H. whereas the lack of a common policy to combat drugs could place a question mark against the abolition of frontier checks, and recalling, in this connection, the conclusions of the Rhodes European Council,

I. believing that coca growing in Colombia and the other Andean countries cannot be stamped out unless various alternatives are found to ensure the survival and the advancement of local inhabitants, under an effective development cooperation policy,

J. having regard to the views it has repeatedly expressed on the fight against drugs, in particular in its resolutions of 14 May 1982 (1), 9 October 1986 marking the conclusion of the work of the Committee of Inquiry into the Drug Problem in the Community (2), its resolutions of 17 December 1987 (3) and 18 January 1989 (4).

(1) OJ No C 149, 14.6.1982, p. 120.

(2) OJ No C 283, 10.11.1986,p. 79.

(3) OJ No C 13, 18.1.1988, pp. 109, 110 and 111.

(4) OJ No C 47, 20.2.1989, p. 51.

1. Expresses the severest condemnation of the murder of Senator Galan, and of the long series of killings perpetrated by drug traffickers which have claimed the lives of judges, members of the forces of law and order, journalists and ordinary Colombian citizens;

2. Congratulates President Barco on the courageous stand he has taken and expresses its solidarity with the Colombian Government and all governments which have shown their determination to combat the drugs scourge;

3. Calls on the Colombian Government to guarantee democratic rights, to mobilize all national social forces and to remove all drug-linked or corrupt persons from the state apparatus, the administration and political appointments;

4. Calls on the President-in-Office of the Council to urge the Council and European Political Cooperation to examine, as a matter of urgency, what political and legal measures could be taken by the Community and its Member States to assist the Colombian Government in its campaign against the drugs trade;

5. Calls on the Commission to provide the Republic of Colombia with sufficient aid and financial resources to enable it to make good the damage which might be caused to the nation, and particularly to small farmers, trade and the balance of payments, by measures to combat the drugs trade;

6. Proposes that a working party be set up in the European Parliament to organize the European conference on combating drugs decided on during the last parliamentary term on the basis of the experience gained by the Committee of Inquiry into the Drug Problem in the Community and to devise the necessary measures, and calls for provision to be made in the budget for the organization of the above conference;

7. Stresses the need for closer cooperation among the competent bodies in the Member States and calls for the enactment of common legislation in the Community, particularly on the freezing and seizure of the assets of drug traffickers, and the drafting of recommendations to Community financial institutions alerting them to money laundering techniques and methods of combating this;

8. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Colombian Government, the governments of the Member States, the US Administration and the UN.