CRI听力:EU Official Pledges $43m towards Fight against Drug Trafficking

The EU is putting out 32 million euros toward an anti-drug trafficking programme in Peru.

The funding has been announced by Andris Piebalgs, the EU's Commissioner for Development during a visit to the South American country.

"Today we have a signing of an eight million euro budget support disbursement, which means that we fully support the Peruvian programme and also macro-economic framework, and support to the programme passes through Peruvian institutions."

Piebalgs has signed off the first tranche of the funding worth 8-million euros in Lima.

The UN has announced in June that Peru's efforts to eradicate coca, the raw material for cocaine, cut the area under cultivation by 17.5 percent last year.

Peruvian foreign minister Gonzalo Gutierrez.

"Our European partners have committed to an important donation of 32.2 million euros, with an objective of sustainable reduction of the illegal production, trafficking and consumption of drugs in Peru, and promote alternative development."

Peru remains the world's largest coca-cultivating country, having displaced Colombia from the top-spot in 2012.