Headines: THEY GOVERN THE EU: DRUG MAFIA
SWEDEN MAY BE FORCED TO LEGALIZE DRUGS AFTER PRESSURE FROM ANTIPROHIBITIONNISTS
HTE CLOSE TIES BETWEEN THE LOBBYISTS AND THOSE IN POWER.
THE CORRIDOR-MAFIA- A SERIES ABOUT THE CONCEALED PEOPLE IN POWER
17 MEPs SUPPORT CORA
Brussels. A picture of Al Capone and marijuana are hanging on the wall. The victory on the Swedish drug policy was governed from here. The drug lobbys own headquarters are situated in the heart of the EP.
It is the day after the debate in the EPs committee of justice - the committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs.
Ottavio Marzocchi leans backwards in his office chair. Formally he is employed as an assistant to the Italian Radical Party, but he is also a lobbyist for the drug liberal organisation CORA.
The group has 17 MEPs as members and is at the same time a so-called intergroup - a forum for lobbyists which enables them to come in contact with politicians in the Parliament.
Ottavio Marzocchi has all reasons to feel satisfied.
After just a few months in the Parliament he can collect the greatest victory ever of the drug liberals.
From his computer he fetches the final document of the meeting of the committeeon November, 4.
Read paragraph 12, he says contentedly.
Liberalize drugs
The text gives evidence that EU highest decision-making body, the Council of Ministers, should demand a modification of UNs convention on drugs.
The committee goes as far as wanting to decriminalize all use of drugs - entirely in line with CORAs demands.
CORA was founded in Italy 1988 by Marco Pannella, a controversial politician who during 17 years was a MEP of the Italian Radical Party.
Marco Pannella is ultra liberal and his ideas are comparable to the Swedish Front of Freedom.
Today he has left the Parliament in order to operate the drug lobby in Italy.CORA wants to combat all kinds of prohibitions, especially of narcotics. The main arguments are that people should have the right to rule their own lives and that criminality would diminish. Drugs would become so cheap that crimes would not be necessary in order to finance an addiction.
- The restrictive drug policy is a failure. People use drugs in spite of this, says Ottavio Marzocchi.
He tells that Cora has 800 members who pay to the organisation.
Anonymous contributors
- We also have a number of contributors who want to be anonymous.
But Ottavio Marzocchi does not want to reveal how large sums CORA receives in anonymous support and which interests lie behind the contributions.
The Swedish MEP MaLou Lindholm (Green Party) is just a few rooms away in the Parliament building.
She is fighting an equal struggle against the fellow party-members in the Green group od the Parliament.
Many green MEPs support CORAs idea - to liberalize drugs.
At the committee meeting of November, 4, the disagreement was so large that MaLou Lindholm was removed at the final vote.
She was replaced by the German Daniel Cohn-Bendit, one of the most extreme drug-liberals of the Parliament.
- It didnt change anything, says MaLou Lindholm.
- The constitution was such that I realized that the report in any case would be adopted.
The meeting was tumultuous and the drug liberals won, 17 members voted for the final version. Eleven members were against. The remaining abstained or were abstent.
Rape of the Swedes
It would be a rape of the Swedes if we couldnt retain our restrictive drug policy, says Malou Lindholm.
The strict Swedish drug policy irritates the drug lobbyists.
Cora does not see Swedens strict policy as a threat to an easing-off of the drug laws.
The committee report was a partial victory. Now the report is sent on. The Parliament will eitheradopt or reject the document in a vote in the beginning of the year.
The same day as Aftonbladet met Ottavio Marzocchi the central group of CORA were having a meeting in order to lay down the general outlines before the important voting.
Aftonbladet wanted to visit the meeting, but got a straight no.
- You would disturb us, explains Ottavio Marzocchi.
Strong forces are supporting CORA. The trump card of the organisation is the Italian EU-Commissioner Emma Bonino. She spoke in CORAs congress last year, and wants to deriminalize drugs.
Cora is also supported by 61 MEPs who have signed an appeal about a more lenient legislation on narcotics.
The organisation is growing.
At the same time the organisation is growing. Cora is now in the entire Europe. Strong holds are apart from Italy, also France, Belgium and Spain.
The strong opposition of the drug liberals in the Parliament has made the Swedish politicians collaborate over the party frontiers.
Both MaLou Lindholm (Green Party) and Charlotte Cederschiold (Conservative Party) firmly disocciated themselves from CORA.
- They are no more than a playing ground of the drug liberals here in the Parliament, says Charlotte Cederschiold.
The Parliament does not itself have the possibility to introduce concrete rules. Even if the report of the committee was approved by the entire Parliament it does not imply immediate decriminalization of drugs.
On the other hand it is a very strong signal to the most powerful authorities, the Commission and the Council of Ministers, to act.
So the battle will continue.
Cora is convinced of winning.