EU Statement on narcotic drugs (CND) - Vienna

Summary: April 17, 2003: Statement of the European Community 46th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs Agenda Item 6 c) (i) (Vienna)

Madame Chair,

I am happy to follow up on the statement of my EU Presidency colleague. We appreciate the clear and informative 2002 INCB Precursors Report and would like to inform you about some European Community actions with regard to precursor control in the past year.

Firstly, legislative amendments have come into force, enhancing our monitoring and control mechanisms in relation to Acetic Anhydride and Potassium Permanganate. All our exports of these substances will now legally require pre-export notification, as well as individual export authorisation. Pre-export notification is, of course, essential in order to be able to ensure effective controls.

Furthermore, the European Commission working closely with the Member States has undertaken an assessment of the Community legislation - and its implementation - with regard to the control of the trade in chemical precursors.

This assessment has generated new ideas on legislative means to strengthen and rationalise our monitoring and control mechanisms with regard to the licit trade in chemical precursors and to continue to meet the objective of preventing their illicit diversion, taking into account changing licit and illicit trade patterns. The proposed changes resulting from the assessment are currently being examined.
One element being discussed in this context is the Community-wide standardisation of licence procedures in order to guarantee effective monitoring of chemical precursors trade. A second element concerns brokers and other operators engaged in intermediate activities. We concur with the Board's Report on the need to closely monitor such activities. We are also examining the extension of our legislation to cover operators based within the Community who facilitate trade between third countries. This will enable us to apply our control and monitoring mechanisms, even where chemicals do not enter our customs territory.
Finally, we are also considering the possible intensification of our import control procedures, thereby taking account of the increased diversion of precursors used in the illicit manufacture of synthetic drugs.

We are now pressing ahead with translating the findings of the assessment into our legislation and will, of course, keep you informed about further developments.

I am also pleased to inform you of the recent signature of an Agreement between the European Community and Turkey to strengthen administrative co-operation in preventing the diversion of chemical precursors. This agreement will enter into force once ratified by the Turkish Parliament and will represent a major step forward in our joint efforts to counter precursor diversion.

We welcome the success of Operations Purple and Topaz and are prepared to continue to fully participate in this important work. We are also happy to support and to participate actively in the new Project Prism - aimed at preventing the diversion of Amphetamine-Type Stimulant (ATS) precursors - whose launch-meeting held in Washington last year was co-funded by the European Commission and by the United States. We consider that addressing this issue in an international framework will allow it to be tackled in the most effective way.

Finally, Madame Chair, I would like to stress the continued commitment of the European Community to precursor control and our willingness to work together with the Board, with Governments and other organisations to achieve this.

Ref: PRES03-042EN
EU source: EU Presidency
UN forum: Other
Date: 17/4/2003

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