14 EU drugs strategy for 2005-12
| (25785)
10999/04
—
| Presidency Communication: draft EU Drugs Strategy 2005-2012
|
| Legal base | — |
| Deposited in Parliament | 2 July 2004
|
| Department | Home Office |
| Basis of consideration | EM of 15 July 2004
|
| Previous Committee Report | None
|
| To be discussed in Council | No date set
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
14.1 Article 152 of the Treaty establishing the European Community
provides that the Community is to complement the action of Member
States to reduce drug-related damage to human health and to encourage
cooperation between Member States for that purpose. Member States
are to coordinate their activities and the Commission is to promote
such coordination. The Community and Member States are also to
foster cooperation with third countries and international organisations
in the interests of public health.
14.2 Articles 29 and 31 of the Treaty on European
Union provide for police and judicial cooperation to combat crime,
including illicit trafficking in drugs.
14.3 The Community has a Drugs Strategy and Action
Plan for the period 2000-04.
The document
14.4 The Dutch Presidency has invited Member States
to comment on a paper setting out a draft of the Community's Drugs
Strategy from the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2012. The paper
proposes to make use of existing instruments rather than to create
new ones. It also calls for a "thematic" or "regional"
approach. This would mean that a group of Member States which
faced a common problem could come together to identify options
for cooperation, particularly on operational issues. Other Member
States, not facing the same problem, would be free to decide whether
to take part in the initiative; they would not be bound to do
so.
14.5 The draft strategy has six elements:
- Reduction of demand for drugs.
- Reduction of supply.
- International cooperation.
- Information and evaluation.
- Action plans.
- Coordination.
(I) REDUCTION OF DEMAND
14.6 The Presidency proposes that the aim of the
drug reduction strategy should be to achieve the following result:
"Measurable development and improvement of an
effective and integrated comprehensive knowledge-based prevention,
treatment and harm reduction system within the EU Member States
in order to contribute significantly to the reduction of the demand
for drugs and of drug-related harm".[25]
14.7 The paper proposes the following priorities
to reduce demand:
- Improve the effectiveness of
drug prevention and raise awareness of risks by disseminating
high-quality information to young people and target groups.
- Improve the availability of effective treatment
and access to it.
- Improve the availability of harm-reduction interventions,
placing emphasis on HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne infections.
(II) SUPPLY REDUCTION
14.8 The paper proposes that the aim of the supply
reduction strategy should be to achieve the following result:
"A measurable improvement in the effectiveness,
efficiency and knowledge base of law enforcement interventions
and actions by the EU targeting large-scale production and trafficking
of drugs and the diversion of precursors, to be attained by focusing
on drug-related organised crime, using existing instruments and
frameworks, opting for regional or thematic cooperation and looking
for ways of intensifying preventive action in relation to drug-related
crime."[26]
14.9 The paper proposes the following priorities
in support of this aim:
- Intensify law enforcement cooperation
between Member States using existing mechanisms, such as joint
investigation teams, the European Arrest Warrant, Europol and
Eurojust.
- Through joint projects, enhance cooperation between
the law enforcement authorities of Member States which have common
interests or problems.
- Intensify law enforcement efforts directed at
non-EU countries, and especially drug-producing countries and
regions along the drug-trafficking routes. The Presidency comments
that "it is vital to expand the network of EU liaison officers
in third countries".
- Focus EU law enforcement on large-scale drug
production, trafficking of drugs across the internal borders of
the EU and the criminal networks involved in drugs.
(III) INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
14.10 The Presidency proposes that the aim of the
international cooperation strategy should be to achieve the following
result:
"A measurable improvement in effective and more
visible coordination between Member States and in promoting and
developing a [more] balanced approach to the drugs problem in
dealings with international organisations, in international fora
and with third countries, in order to reduce the drugs supply
to Europe and drugs demand in priority areas."[27]
14.11 Among the proposed priorities for achieving
this aim are:
- Increasing the efforts to achieve
effective cooperation with Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey and countries
in the Balkans.
- Including specific clauses on drugs control in
EU cooperation agreements with third countries and making appropriate
provision in the EU external relations budget for expenditure
to help reduce drug production in third countries.
(IV) INFORMATION AND EVALUATION
14.12 The proposed aim of the strategy for information
and evaluation is to achieve the following result:
"A measurable and sustainable improvement in
the knowledge base, knowledge infrastructure and coordination
required for demand reduction and supply reduction policies …
while making better use of existing R&D potential, resulting
in a better understanding of the drugs problem and an optimal
response to it."[28]
The paper suggests that the Drugs Action Plans should
include a list of research projects, and that the EU R&D Framework
Programmes should take account of these when assessing applications
for research grants.
14.13 The paper includes the following among the
proposed priorities to achieve the information and evaluation
strategy:
- Develop performance indicators
for all aspects of drug policy.
- Conduct independent evaluations of performance.
- Develop and maintain large-scale exchanges of
relevant information, including information on new trends in drug
use.
(V) ACTION PLANS
14.14 The paper proposes that the Commission be asked
to draw up two Action Plans, one for 2005-07 and the other for
2009-11. In 2008 and 2012 the Plans for the preceding three years
would be evaluated.
14.15 In the light of the particular circumstances
of each Member State, the Action Plans would select Member States
for participation in projects included in the Plans. Projects
should satisfy five criteria:
- Action at EU-level must offer
clear added-value and the expected results must be stated in advance,
measurable and realistic.
- The timeframe and responsibility for implementation
of each action must be specified.
- All activities in the Action Plans must contribute
to the achievement of at least one of the aims or priorities of
the Drugs Strategy.
- The activities must be reasonably cost-effective.
- There must be a limited number of activities
in each field of the Drugs Strategy.
By the end of 2012, progress should have been made
on all the priorities. The evaluations of the Action Plans should
be conducted by the Commission, in cooperation with the European
Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, Europol and Member
States.
(VI) COORDINATION
14.16 The paper proposes that the Horizontal Drugs
Group (HDG) should be responsible for coordinating EU-level drugs
policy. (The HDG is a Council working group on drugs.) The HDG
should ensure consistent management of the Strategy and Action
Plans, including the aspects concerned with cooperation with third
countries and international organisations.
The Government's view
14.17 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
at the Home Office (Caroline Flint) tells us that:
"The Government broadly welcomes the draft,
in particular because it focuses on the need for European level
work to add value to national effort, and because it will provide
a basis for targeted, timebound and measurable actions, underpinned
by strengthened coordination mechanisms."
She expects that the Council will adopt the Drugs
Strategy by December.
Conclusion
14.18 We welcome the pragmatic, results-oriented
approach of the Presidency's proposals. We look forward to scrutinising
the details of the Strategy and Action Plans as they emerge from
the working group's discussions of the paper. There are no questions
that we need put to the Minister at this stage.
14.19 We are content, therefore, to clear the
document, but we draw it to the attention of the House because
of the importance of the subject.
25 Presidency paper, p.6. Back
26
Presidency paper, p.7. Back
27
Presidency paper, p.9. Back
28
Presidency paper, p.11. Back
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