The EU Council on 8 December endorsed the “EU Drugs Action Plan for 2009-2012”. The endorsed Action Plan includes wide-ranging measures to strengthen European cooperation to curb the adverse consequences of drug use and reduce the crime related to it. The Action Plan is grouped around five priorities covering actions to improve coordination, to reduce the demand for drugs, to reduce the supply of drugs, to improve international cooperation and to improve understanding of the drugs phenomenon.
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The EU Member States are the main actors in the drugs field, and drug legislation is primarily a matter of national competence. However, the Treaties explicitly acknowledge the need to deal with drug issues at EU level, in particular in the fields of justice and home affairs and public health.
The adopted Action Plan is the second of two consecutive Action Plans aimed to implement the EU Drugs Strategy 2005-2012, which was endorsed by the Council in 2004, as an integral part of the multi-annual programme
The EU Drugs Action Plan 2009-2012 has two main pillars, drug demand and drug supply reduction, and three cross cutting themes, including coordination, international cooperation and information, research and evaluation. For each of these five policy fields, priorities have been formulated:
This includes measures to improve the effectiveness of prevention, treatment and harm reduction, including the development of quality standards and improving access and coverage of services. Particular attention should be paid to vulnerable people and the prevention of poly-drug use (combined use of illicit and licit substances, in particular alcohol).
Initiatives to strengthen the effectiveness of law enforcement in the EU to counter drug production and trafficking such as: making full use of the capacities of Europol and other EU structures, based on an intelligence-led approach. More coordinated operations via regional security platforms should be supported.
- Improving coordination, cooperation and raising public awareness
Coordination and cooperation in the drug field can be strengthened at both European and national level so that drug policies are relevant to professionals and civil society, while at the same time enabling these structures to provide feedback to inform policy.
- Improving international cooperation
The effectiveness of EU, the world’s major donor in the global fight against drugs and in the struggle for more sustainable solutions to drug cultivation, would benefit greatly from better coordination of national and Community policies.
- Improving understanding of the drug phenomenon
We need to increase our knowledge of all aspects of drug use through more and better coordinated research and data; including data on drug-related crime and on the way the illicit drug market works.
The new Action Plan will be implemented as of 2009. By 2012, an independent evaluation of the implementation of the measures proposed by the Action Plan is foreseen.
