In Rome the EU considers the 'Cocaine Route' programme

ROME, Italy, May 27, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Announcement for Editors-in-Chief, International Conference "Improving responses to organised crime and drug trafficking along the Cocaine Route"

Europe will be assessing the “Cocaine Route” Programme on 28 May in the course of an international conference in Rome entitled "Improving responses to organised crime and drug trafficking along the Cocaine Route". The conference has been organised by the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) in cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event's opening speakers will include Foreign Ministry's Director General for Political and Security Affairs (DGAP) Sandro De Bernardin, EuropeAid Director for Human and Social Development Kristian Schmidt and former President of Nigeria and current President of the West African Commission Olusegun Obasanjo.

The first four years

The conference will offer an opportunity to assess the first four years of the “Cocaine Route” Programme, which was launched in 2009 by the EU, is ongoing in 36 countries and is coordinated by Italy. The programme is a broad-based European initiative aimed at combating transnational crime, money-laundering and narcotics trafficking, and that targets the world's three most dangerous areas with regard to crime: Western Africa, South America and the Eastern Caribbean. The initiative's goal is to harmonise the various components of Europe's efforts to counter criminal activity in the air and on the sea and money-laundering, and in support of the police forces and courts of Western Africa and South America. The programme is administered by the Foreign Ministry's Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGCS) and coordinated through the minister's private office, and to this end, the DGCS has formed a multinational team of experts coordinated by Italy.