I regret very much that Parliament has voted an utterly inadequate budget with regard to our common fight against drugs. The introduction of the Single Market in 1993 has imposed greater responsibilities on law enforcement agencies which are now acting not just on a national basis but on behalf of the Union as a whole when protecting the external frontier against drugs smuggling. We need to intensity cooperation to combat the drugs menace by putting in place a comprehensive budgetary arrangement for providing drugs-related funding to Member States, especially those which have long stretches of the EU's external frontier to protect and which therefore carry a disproportionate share of the financial burden in this area.

The LEADER programme represents a significant achievement for the Union but the funding proposed today for LEADER II falls far short of the requirements and expectations of people living in the Union's rural areas. In the coming ears every effort must be made to increase funding for LEADER II.