EU justice ministers will be able to report to the Dublin Summit next month their agreement on a major stepping up of European co operation in the fight against drugs and the exploitation of children.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, said yesterday after arriving in Brussels for a two day meeting of Justice Ministers, that she was hopeful of tying up the remaining elements in a substantial package of newly started work and future co operation today.
A draft report to the summit warns that although less than 1 per cent of the population may have tried heroin, "opiates remain the main problem drugs in respect of both health and crime consequences". The report notes that there has been a rise in the use of synthetic drugs among young people and that Balkan routes are still the most important supply lines for heroin.
But French proposals to harmonise EU member states' anti drugs laws as well as the practices of police and customs services and attitudes to addicts are likely to face strong resistance from the Dutch Justice Minister.
Ministers are likely, however, to back Irish proposals to streamline co operation between police and customs forces in combating smuggling of drugs.
But suggestions that states should also harmonise their internal approaches - essentially by adopting a French punitive model - are seen by the Dutch as a threat to their liberal cannabis regime and "coffee" houses.
Mrs Owen is likely, however, to come away with a long list of new joint measures or projects to report to the Dublin summit - from scientific co operation on drug identification, to a common register of experts, new streamlined extradition procedures be member states, reinforced measures against drug tourism and domestic production.
A proposed resolution which encourages member states to ensure that sentences for drug trafficking involve severe custodial sentences is likely to be agreed.
In Dublin they may be complaining about the efficiency of the Department of Justice, but in Brussels diplomats are impressed at the new vitality of the traditionally lumbering justice and home affairs "pillar" of the Union under the guidance of the Justice officials of the Irish presidency.
Officials say that by stripping out a whole layer of middle ranking committees from the process and by careful advance planning of their presidency priorities, the process has been considerably more productive than usual.
Remarkably, the presidency has succeeded in persuading memberstates to approve Community funding for areas that have never received it before the Grotius programme of magistrate exchanges is to get £7 million over three years, the Sherlock programme of training in false document identification will get £4 million, an exchange and training programme for those involved in the fight against child abuse, £5 million, and a new Oisin programme of police exchanges and training is likely to get £8 million.
An agreement to extend the mandate of Europol - the EU's drugs intelligence unit in The Hague - to cover trafficking in human beings may, however, not be completed as, to their embarrassment, the Dutch have admitted to a technical hitch.
The ministers were due to set a special committee, chaired by the Belgians, to report on the implications of the new mandate and come up with a plan of action for Europol.
A joint action is likely to be approved, however, which seeks to harmonise definitions of trafficking in people and sexual exploitation of children to permit closer co operation between police forces.
Two conventions, on the fight against fraud and the use by customs of information technology, are to be signed today after the presidency persuaded Britain to accept a formula used in the Europol Convention allowing others to recognise the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in its interpreting.
The ministers will also approve the report on actions in the Justice and Home Affairs field for 1996 which will go to the Dublin summit on December 13th.
