On 13 & 14 December 2007, the European Commission organised the
first meeting
of a Civil Society Forum on Drug Policy in the European Union. This forum is meant to strengthen cooperation with civil society in the field of drug policy at EU level.
The forum is the outcome of a process that started in January 2006 with a Conference on Civil Society and Drugs in Brussels. Approximately 60 civil society representatives attended this event.
In June 2006, the European Commission published a
Green Paper
on the role of civil society in drug policy in the EU. Organisations representing citizens concerned by the drugs phenomenon were asked to produce comments to this Green Paper. The Commission received 56 responses of civil society organisations.
In July 2007, the Commission called for organisations
that wished to take part in the dialogue forum to send an application before 19 August. There were 75 respondents. On 31 October the Commission finally selected 26 organisations to take part in the first meeting of the forum. In the letter, the Commission promised to publish the list of all respondents to the call, but this did not happen. After many efforts to obtain the list, ENCOD finally obtained a copy early April 2008.
On 23 November, ENCOD wrote a public letter to the European Commission to ask for explanations about the reasons why organisations were selected and others not.
On 29 November we received a reply from the Commission on this letter.
On 13 December we presented a statement to the participants at the civil society forum.
The forum took place on 13 & 14 december. Here you can read ENCODs report on the forum.
On 31 January 2008 the European Parliament started the discussions on report concerning the Civil Society Forum.
On 11 March 2008 the European Commission announced a call for proposals for Civil Society organisations to obtain grants in order to participate in the dialogue on drug policies. ENCOD refused to apply for this grant, which it considers as an effort to buy the silence of citizens.
On 20 and 21 May 2008, the second session of the civil society forum will be organised in Brussels. ENCOD organises a consultation among its members concerning its role in this session.
Here is a list of the organisations that have been selected to the CSF, some information on their background, who they claim to represent and their earlier role in the consultation.
