WRITTEN QUESTION E-3364/00 by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission. Latest annual report on drug use in the European Union.
Date: 2000-10-27
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU action, EU financing, action programme, activity report, disease prevention, dissemination of information, drug addiction

C 163 E/100

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2001

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(5 December 2000)

The Commission is well aware that socially disadvantaged and marginalised groups, in particular girls and
women are most vulnerable to being subjected to the form of slave labour described by the Honourable
Member.

Such practices are generally rooted in the pervasive poverty that reinforces existing social barriers and
patterns of ethnic and sectarian discrimination, not only in the countries mentioned by the Honourable
Member but also in many other countries with poor social indicators, including European countries.

Hence the Commission(cid:146)s strategy for cooperation, particularly in the sphere of development, aims first and
foremost at reducing the incidence of poverty and thereby paving the way to empower the groups that are
most likely to fall prey to the practice outlined by the Honourable Member. The Commission maintains
with all three countries cited by the Honourable Member an active dialogue on development and economic
co-operation aimed at reducing poverty, modernising the economic institutions and helping bring about
conditions in which adequate jobs are generated.

In India the Commission has committed the largest share of its development aid to bolstering a major
government programme that aims at ensuring that within the first decade of this new millennium quality
primary education is universally accessible to all school age children, even in the remotest villages.
Universal primary education is essential to addressing the conditions in which child, slave and bonded
labour are possible. The Commission further co-funds dozens of non-governmental organisations running
social action programmes that contribute to the economic and social empowerment of the poorest of the
poor.

With Pakistan, the Commission will continue to raise the issue of child and bonded labour with the
authorities. The Commission is the key partner in the international
labour organisation international
programme on elimination of child labour (IPEC) that aims to combat the practice of abusive child and
bonded labour through measures of prevention, withdrawal and rehabilitation. At a human rights
convention in April 2000 the Pakistani government outlined a course of action aimed at addressing the
problem of bonded labour. It recently set up a special fund for the education of working children and
rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers, a course of action long advocated in our dialogue and co-
operation programmes.

The Commission is currently in a close dialogue with the Nepalese authorities with a view to identifying
effective programmes that underpin the government decree of 17 July 2000 prohibiting the practice of
bonded labour.

(2001/C 163 E/108)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3364/00

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(27 October 2000)

Subject: Latest annual report on drug use in the European Union

At midday on 11 October 2000, the annual report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug
Abuse on the state of the drugs problem in the European Union was publicly launched.

Chapter 3, concerning official (cid:145)responses to drugs use(cid:146), contains a paragraph confirming the existence of
a research project funded by the Commission to ascertain whether it is appropriate to encourage the
setting up of special premises ((cid:145)users(cid:146) rooms(cid:146)) where addicts can inject themselves with narcotics (p. 27 of the
English version).

6.6.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 163 E/101

As drug addiction is a serious social problem requiring preventive action, would the Commission state:

1. Under which programme was this type of research funded?

2. On what grounds was this type of research, based on maintaining a drugs habit rather than research
into substitution treatment or preventive strategies, considered important and granted funding?

3. Were other research projects funded by the Commission involving other methods aimed at reducing

the use of, and demand for, drugs?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(18 January 2001)

The study in question was funded in 1999 in the framework of the Programme of Community action on
the prevention of drug dependence (1996-2000). The name of the project is: Evaluation des Gesundheits-
raumangebots f(cid:252)r Drogenkonsumenten in drei Europ(cid:228)ischen St(cid:228)dten. The responsible organisation is
Institut f(cid:252)r Interdisziplin(cid:228)re Sucht- und Drogenforschung, Klinik f(cid:252)r Psychiatrie, University of Hamburg.

The evaluation study to be implemented in Hamburg, Rotterdam and Innsbruck is ongoing. The final
report will be submitted to the Commission by 1 April 2001. The Commission expects a scientifically valid
evaluation from the independent official body responsible. The questions of high interest are if and
eventually how, such a preventive care offer will reduce the risk behaviour of addicts and secondly, if and
eventually how,
the
controversy caused by trials with so called (cid:145)users(cid:146) rooms(cid:145). On the other hand, cities in several Members
States, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have opened such users(cid:146) rooms where drugs can be consumed
under hygienic and supervised conditions. This is designed to achieve a reduction of the transmission of
infectious diseases and the risk of fatal overdoses. The result of the study should be of value for these
Member States as well as for others, not yet having decided whether to allow such experiments to be
undertaken or not.

improve and maintain their health. The Commission is fully aware of

it will

The overall objective of the drug prevention programme is nevertheless to contribute to reducing the
demand for illegal drugs in Europe. This focus remains clear in the implementation of the programme. The
Commission has over several years funded a variety of research projects and studies implemented with this
common aim.

(2001/C 163 E/109)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3365/00

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(27 October 2000)

Subject: Refusal to extradite

On 2 June 2000 the French police arrested, in Corsica, Mr Alvaro Lojacono, who had been sentenced to
life imprisonment for the murder (in 1978) of the politician Aldo Moro and his security guards and to
imprisonment for the murder of a medical student, Mikaeli Mantakas, who was killed on
16 years(cid:146)
28 February 1975 outside the headquarters of a political party (Movimento Sociale Italiano)
in via
Ottaviano, in Rome.

Despite his two convictions, Mr Lojacono has not served a single day of his sentence, as he went into
hiding immediately, changed his name, took Swiss citizenship and evaded all attempts to have him
extradited.

On 7 July 2000 Italy submitted a request
authorities, who, on 11 October 2000, released him and refused to extradite him to Italy.

for Mr Lojacono(cid:146)s extradition to the competent French