On Wednesday 3 July in Lisbon, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, and the Executive Director of the new European Union Drugs Agency, Alexis Goosdeel, officially launched the work of this new agency, which will have a broader remit than the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (see EUROPE 13152/6).
The two leaders also signed a new cooperation agreement with Ecuador on the same day, at a time when the countries of Latin and Central America “are crucial” in helping the EU to combat drug trafficking, the Commissioner explained at a press briefing.
The EU has already signed cooperation agreements of this kind with Colombia, Chile and Peru.
The new mandate of the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) came into force on 3 July. Equipped with new tools and new skills, the EUDA will play a key role in strengthening the EU’s response to the new health and security challenges posed by illicit drugs, explains a press release. It will have a broader and more proactive remit, given that “a new substance is being detected around every 2 weeks on the European market”, explained the EUDA Director.
The Agency’s work will focus on four categories of interconnected services: - Anticipate: helping the EU and its Member States anticipate future drug-related challenges and their consequences; - Alert: issuing real-time alerts on new drug risks and threats to health and security; - Respond: helping the EU and its Member States strengthen their responses to the drug phenomenon; - Learn: facilitating EU-wide knowledge exchange and learning for evidence-based drug policies and interventions.
New mechanisms are also being created to ensure the EU’s preparedness in the drugs field, explains the Agency. The European Drugs Alert System, for example, will issue alerts when serious drug-related risks appear on the market. This system complements the EU’s Early Warning System on new psychoactive substances.
The European Threat Assessment System will boost how the EU prepares for, and reacts to, emerging or potential health and security threats.
And the European Network of Forensic and Toxicological Laboratories will foster information exchange on new trends and train national toxicologists and forensic drug experts. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)