TXT - 589IP0056 - CELEX/bas-cenRESOLUTION
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.