On Monday 29 May, the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament concluded an informal political agreement that will allow the EU to act faster to tackle legal highs, new psychoactive substances used, amongst other things, as a substitute for cocaine and ecstasy.
“The new mechanism metrics allow for a more efficient EU response to new psychoactive substances, which are appearing on the EU market at an unprecedented pace”, the Maltese Presidency explained in a press release. “We will be able to drastically reduce the time needed to assess and possibly decide on an EU-wide ban of new psychoactive substances”, said home affairs minister Carmelo Abela.
The new mechanism will streamline the procedure at EU level for assessing the potential negative effects of a new psychoactive substance and decide on a possible ban. This procedure will now be nearly twice as fast as before. Moreover, the new rules will further reduce from 12 to 6 months the time for member states to implement the EU decision at national level.
The legislative package also aims to improve the information exchange, early warning system and risk assessment procedure at EU level.
This inter-institutional agreement comes after four years of negotiations (see EUROPE 10923, 11063). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)