The European Commission has an open consultation for ideas from civil society for a communication on the EU Action Plan on drugs 2005 - 2008.
Nearly one in five of the EU population has used an illicit drug at least once and there are an estimated 1.5 million problem users. An increase in drugs and organised crime tops the list of fears among European citizens, with 69 % seeing it as the greatest threat to our society.
The Council of Ministers is currently discussing a new EU Drugs Strategy 2005-2012 which will be the political framework to set out the aims and priorities for EU drug policies. The Commission’s Directorate General on Justice and Home Affairs coordinates the Action Plan which contains concrete and measurable activities to meet the goals of the Strategy.
The Commission has launched this informal public consultation to invite civil society and experts in the drugs field to provide ideas and recommendations as iput for a Commission Communication on the EU Action Plan on Drugs 2005 - 2008 that will be published early in 2005.
The Commission welcomes any ideas on the priorities and actions to be included in the EU Action Plan on Drugs 2005-2008. Comments should be based on the earlier Action Plan 2000-2004 and the associated 2002 ’Mid-Term Review’.
Key priorities were:
Information & EMCDDA and research since effective policies cannot be designed without knowledge of the situation.
Drug demand reduction including exploring the reasons they are used and educating people about their effects. Prevention and harm-reduction programmes are important features of the EU’s strategy.
Drug supply reduction, to stop trafficking and drug-related criminality. Special emphasis on addressing new synthetic drugs and their chemical precursors, as well as combating money-laundering. International cooperation in all the areas described above.
How to participate
Comments should be sent by email.
All the comments will be treated as confidential.
The deadline for sending comments is 8 November 2004.
