THERE is broad agreement within the EU that organised crime represents a threat to all member states and can only be dealt with on an EU wide basis, the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, pointed out yesterday.
However, there is a minefield of inter state arguments to be crossed before a cohesive EU approach to the threat can be organised.
The Government's plan for the presidency not only involves reaching agreement on matters where member states' views are broadly aligned, but also tackling some of those areas where member states have quite different ideas about what action to take.
Last week the Luxembourg parliament threw a new spanner in the works when it declared that Luxembourg and Belgium should follow the Dutch approach to the drug problem in other words, some "legalisation" of less serious drugs.
Governments in some other member states, including the Republic, would never support such a policy.
Luxembourg's move may have had less to do with formulating drug policy than with its disagreement with France over the way the French continue to operate border controls. This is the sort of problem that Ireland has now undertaken to try to resolve during its presidency.
Yesterday the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, met the EU Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, Ms Anita Gradin, to discuss how the wide drugs and crime agenda for the presidency can be progressed. Mrs Owen said later that it was a most useful exchange of views".
Fortunately the Government has just n time arranged for the Republic to ratify a series of international agreements, which will improve Irish co operation with other police forces in international crime investigations.
One of these conventions has been awaiting an Irish signature since 1957, another since 1984. Without that domestic business completed, the Irish would have "looked very silly" trying to push other EU states into such agreements, in the words of one official.
Drug traffickers are aware that some member states offer shorter sentences for drug crime than others. The Taoiseach said yesterday the Presidency wants to ensure there is no state where criminals believe it is "attractive, so to speak, to headquarter a drug trafficking operation".