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Dutch and Belgian prime ministers in new diplomatic row over coffeeshops

Raymond Frenken

EUX TV

Thursday 19 Apr 2007

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MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands (EUX.TV) -- A bitter diplomatic row has
broken out between the prime ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands
over the location of Dutch shops that sell cannabis drugs within walking
distance from Belgium, it emerged on Thursday. Belgium also wants the
problem now to be discussed at a ministerial level in the European Union.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has written to his Dutch
colleague Jan-Peter Balkenende to tell him that "under no condition" he
will accept that Dutch so-called 'coffeeshops' will be relocated to
locations close to the Belgian border.

The relocations are the result of a decision taken by the city council
in Maastricht, who wants to force the coffeeshops out of the city centre.

Maastricht hosts 16 'coffeeshops'. It has decided to move seven of them
to the outskirts of the city. Some of them would thus be located closer
to the Belgian towns of Lanaken and Riemst.

To protest, Verhofstadt has written an angry letter to the Dutch prime
minister, the Belgian paper Het Belang van Limburg reported on Friday.

Verhofstadt says the decision to move the coffeeshops clashes with the
Dutch government's coalition agreement, in which it is stated that
coffeeshops are not allowed to open up near schools and near borders.

Verhofstadt also says that the EU member states that have signed up to
the Schengen agreement, which includes the Netherlands and Belgium, have
committed themselves to conducting a drugs-policy that will not
adversely affect neighbouring countries.

Belgium pushes 'coffeeshops' to EU agenda

According to the Belgian newspaper, Belgian Interior Minister Patrick
Dewael will raise the issue at the next meeting of European interior and
justice ministers.

These ministers are meeting today and tomorrow in Luxembourg, but it's
not immediately clear if this issue will be addressed at this meeting or
the next one.

Dewael argues that the Netherlands has consciously adopted a policy that
stimulates 'drugs tourism'.

Maastricht is one of several Dutch border cities that attracts thousands
of people from elsewhere in Europe who come specifically to buy cannabis
products. Many buyers of these drugs drive in from Germany, Belgium and
France.

In the Netherlands, the consumption of these drugs is allowed, as is
their sale in the officially licensed 'coffee-shops'. The shops are
permitted to hold only 30 grams of the drug in stock. Production of the
drug remains illegal, which leads to increasing crime.

In the Netherlands, gangs involved in the production of cannabis drugs
have created a system where they grow the drug on attics and in
basements of people's homes, promising the home-owners financial gains
while staying off the radar screen themselves.

At the same time, gangs are fighting between themselves over harvests of
cannabis farms. In recent months, police have found an increasing number
of such farms that were protected with explosives and booby-traps.

Maastricht police in recent months also has noted an increase in the
number of 'drug runners', who mix in with traffic driving towards the
city in an attempt to find buyers of the drug. Police said that such '
drugs runners' gangs from the Rotterdam area appear to have moved out to
Maastricht area, creating in a more aggressive atmosphere.

"The Netherlands must solve this problem, and not export it," Deweal
told the newspaper.
-- By Raymond Frenken in Maastricht news@eux.tv

 

 

 

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