Taoiseach's progress report says very little is spent on drugs fight

THE TAOISEACH, Mr Bruton, opened the proceedings of the informal summit over lunch with a report to colleagues on the progress of the Irish presidency, now halfway through its term.

Mr Bruton said that on the issue of economic and monetary union, the recent informal meeting of finance ministers had made significant progress on the idea of a stability pact to maintain monetary and fiscal discipline after the single currency is introduced, on the relationship between the "ins" and "outs" of the currency, and on its legal status.

Progress on the three issues should make it possible for the Dublin summit in December to reach definitive decisions on them, "thereby further enhancing the credibility of January 1st, 1999, as a starting date for EMU".

The main focus of the presidency's work on employment also looks to the December summit, when a major report on the implementation of the strategy decided at Essen in 1994 will be presented. Mr Bruton said it should also be possible to present the summit with a number of employment initiatives, and he hoped a declaration setting out the Union strategy for the years ahead would be made. He would be hosting a summit of the social partners and a conference on local development in November.

Mr. Bruton said that the issue of a joint approach to the drugs problem had been "a particular priority", and again the summit would see the presentation of a wide range of proposals. He pointed out that, despite the scale of the problem, current EU funding of the fight against drugs was around £36 million, or less than 0.1 per cent of the total EU budget.

He called for a new common approach to the increasing problem of synthetic drugs such as ecstasy.

Mr Bruton commended the recent action of justice ministers in strengthening the role of Europol in the fight against the exploitation of children for sexual purposes. He promised to build on this work and on the fight against pornography on the Internet.

The Taoiseach said he had discussed such issues on his recent visits to Tokyo and Washington, and that the EU should contribute to a global approach to the problem of crime.