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To the members of the EU Horizontal Drugs Group
To the members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home
Affairs of the European Parliament
COMMENT OF ENCOD TO THE DRUGS ACTION PLAN OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2009-2012
Antwerp, 15 December 2008
Dear Madams, Sirs,
Please find herewith the communication of the European Coalition for
Just and Effective Drug Policies (ENCOD) on the new [EU Drugs Action Plan
for 2009 – 2012->http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:326:0007:0025:EN:PDF] that has been proposed by the European Commission to be
approved by the Member States and the European Parliament.
Looking forward to your response, sincerely yours,
On behalf of ENCOD (a pan-European network of more than 150
organisations and individual citizens involved in the phenomenon of drugs)
André Fürst, Switzerland
Jan Ludewig, Germany
Virginia Montañes, Spain
Joep Oomen, Belgium
Fredrick Polak, The Netherlands
Alessandra Viazzi, Italy
(members of the Steering Committee)
INTRODUCTION
We propose the governments of the European Union to adopt a drug action
plan that protects the health and safety of the European society in
stead of deteriorating them. European citizens need strategies that
contribute to a safer environment around the phenomenon of drugs, that
allow a more rational use of public funds, that respect human rights
take into account the implications for vulnerable populations and
especially women, and which don’t threaten the livelihoods of farmers in
developing countries.
In short a drug policy that causes benefits to society instead of harms.
This new drugs action plan should include the following priorities:
1. INFORMATION, INVESTIGATION AND EVALUATION
To increase the investigation of and extend the knowledge base
concerning forms in which drug consumers can intervene directly in the
reduction of risks and harms related to their own consumption of drugs.
To investigate and evaluate the innovative strategies, programmes and
interventions in the area of drug policy, including alternative
treatments such as the controlled distribution of substances.
To encourage the participation of organisations of drug consumers in the
design and development of investigations.
To take into account the gender perspective in investigations and
evaluations.
To guarantee the objective analysis of the data produced by
investigations, without political manipulations.
To promote international workshops that facilitate the exchange of
information and experiences among the different groups of people
affected by drugs, according to the complexity of themselves and the
substances they use.
Investigate the ties between the industry of legal drugs (alcohol,
tobacco and pharmaceutical companies, etc.) and health institutions.
2. COORDINATION
To promote the decentralisation of drug policies to the local and
national levels, and coordinate the co-operation between neighbouring
countries and regions in order to avoid possible frictions.
To defend in the meetings of the UN the sovereignty of every nation to
establish forms of regulation of the drugs market that are socially and
culturally acceptable to the local populations involved.
To allow a broader margin to local authorities to experiment with
alternative policies and innovative interventions (that may include
steps towards the legalisation of certain substances), from which others
may learn useful lessons in their search for more just and effective
drug policies, based on the respect of human rights and the protection
of public health.
To increase and strengthen the participation of civil society in the
design of drug policies.
To extend the membership of the EU Civil Society Forum on Drug Policies
to all civil society organizations that wish to take part in it.
To formalise the character of the conclusions of this forum as a direct
consultation of civil society to the Member States, without the
unnecessary interference of the European Commission in the formulation
of conclusions and recommendations of this forum.
3. SUPPLY REDUCTION.
To rationalise the supply of drugs and reduce as much as possible the
criminality associated with the black market, making use of effective
measures.
To facilitate, analyse and evaluate the establishment of legal circuits
to control the drugs market with the aim of reducing the presence of the
illegal market.
4. DEMAND REDUCTION.
To reduce the problems that are related to drug consumption within a
context of illegality; to improve, innovate and support ways to
make drug consumers and distributors responsible (among others with
initiatives such as the testing of illegal substances)
To facilitate and encourage the establishment of self support groups of
drug consumers, and develop intervention methods that are more effective
in reducing risks and harms associated to the use of substances.
To strengthen the establishment of self support groups formed by peers
(parents, young people, consumers etc.) and support the contributions of
this kind of groups.
To limit the intervention of institutions exclusively to non-repressive
strategies concerning the problematic use of drugs, which should be
understood as the use that is considered problematic by the consumer
him/herself.
To establish and respect ethical codes for the publicity and promotion
of drugs, legal or illegal.
To give specific attention to vulnerable groups, such as mothers who
consume drugs and minors in situations of high risk; to apply prevention
policies that are aiming at “safe neighbourhoods” and the reduction of
marginalisation and social exclusion that is affecting these vulnerable
groups.
5. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.
To respect the sovereignty of third countries and their autonomy to
formulate own drug policies. The principle of European policy should
always be the protection of health, the respect of human rights and the
prevention of conflicts.
To support the proposals of farmer communities in developing countries
in order to create legal channels of commercialisation for the derivatives
of plants that have been prohibited by the UN Conventions, such as coca
leaves in South America, cannabis in Morocco and opium in Afghanistan.
To exchange experiences of good practices between the European Union and
third countries, based on the respect of sovereignty and avoiding the
imposition of policies that have proved to be a failure.
On 17 December 2008, we received the following reply from the European Commission:
Dear Members of the ENCOD Steering Committee,
Subject: EU Drugs Action Plan for 2009-2012
Thank you very much for your message and your comments on the EU Drugs Action Plan (2009-2012). As you may know, the Action Plan was adopted by the Council of the European Union 8 December 2008.
The final wording of the EU Drugs Action Plan (2009-2012) is a result of negotiations in the Council based on a Commission proposal in September 2008. In the end, the wording was unanimously agreed by all Member States and therefore provides a solid framework for EU drug policies.
As far as civil society consultation is concerned, the Civil Society Forum organised by the Commission in May 2008 gave valuable input to the drafting process in the Commission. As you may see, many of the conclusions of the Civil Society Forum are reflected in the text of the Action Plan.
We have taken note of the comments in your e-mail and look forward to continuing constructive dialogue with civil society representatives in the next meeting of the Civil Society Forum foreseen to take place in March 2009.
Kind Regards,
Carel Edwards
Head Of Unit
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND SECURITY
Directorate D : Fundamental Rights and Citizenship
Unit D3 : Anti drugs policy
On 22 December, we sent the following reply to Mr. Edwards:
Dear Carel Edwards
Thanks for your reply to our letter to the members of the EU Horizontal Drugs Group and the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, referring the new EU Action Plan on Drugs.
We have following questions with regards to your letter.
1. You write that the action plan has already been approved on December 8th, 2008.
Why have the members of the EU Civil Society Forum not been notified of this decision, for instance through the recently created Internet Page of the Civil Society Forum?
Why has there been no press release?
Why has the European Parliament not been involved in this procedure, as was the case in 2004 at the adoption of the EU Strategy for 2005-2012 and the first Action Plan for 2005-2008?
2. You write that opinions of civil society, as issued on the CSF of May 2008, have been included in the new plan.
Is it possible for you to send us a copy (in all available languages) of the definitive version of the plan to verify this?
What is the current status of the proposal to create a “European Alliance on Drugs” – a proposal that has never been mentioned in any of the civil society consultations in the past years and which seems to have surged from the European Commission or the European Council without any feedback from the Civil Society organisations that are supposed to take part in this alliance?
In our view the creation of a “European Alliance on Drugs” should be the last step of an open process that brings together all kinds of opinions and experiences, from different parts of society, and that aims at formulating the basic principles on which all partners can agree.
With all respect, announcing the establishment of a new body with a name that might create confusion among several involved stakeholders, is not the best way to start this process.
Hoping for your answer we wish you and your colleagues pleasant holidays and a happy new year.
André Fürst, Switzerland
Jan Ludewig, Germany
Virginia Montañes, Spain
Joep Oomen, Belgium
Fredrick Polak, The Netherlands
Alessandra Viazzi, Italy
(members of the Steering Committee)
A few hours later on 22 December, we received this reply:
Thank you very much for your message.
As far as your further questions are concerned, I hope the following addresses them properly.
Even if the final EU Drugs Action Plan is a Council document, the Commission did indeed publish a press relase on its final adoption. You may find the press release from vice – president Barrot (in three languages) at
[http://europa.eu/rapid/searchResultAction.do?search=OK&query=justice&username=PROF&advanced=0&sortBy=date&beginDate=01/01/1999&guiLanguage=en
>http://europa.eu/rapid/searchResultAction.do?search=OK&query=justice&username=PROF&advanced=0&sortBy=date&beginDate=01/01/1999&guiLanguage=en ]
The document itself was made available in the Council website at
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=549&lang=EN&mode=g (search for cordrogue documents, EU Action Plan on Drugs)
The text has also been published in the Official Journal 20.12.2008 and is available in all Community languages at
[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:326:SOM:EN:HTML
>http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:326:SOM:EN:HTML ]
The original Commission proposal was also sent to the European Parliament for information, as was the case with the previous Drugs Action Plan and Strategy.
As far as your question on the European Alliance is concerned, it is a very recent and an evolving idea that the Commission will be discussing with all key stakeholders (e.g. the Youth Forum, Health Forum) and it will also be the main theme for discussions in the next Civil Society Forum on Drugs.
Finally, I’d like to use the opportunity to inform you that letters/messages addressed to the Council, it’s working groups etc. and to other European Institututions should be addressed to each one of them respectively.
Kind regards,
Timo Jetsu
On behalf of Carel Edwards, Head of Unit
On 7 January 2009, we sent the following reply:
Dear Carel Edwards and Timo Jetsu
Thanks for sending us the link to the press release and the places where the definitive versions of the new EU Drugs Action Plan should be available.
We regret to inform you that the only versions that we have found here are draft versions.
We therefore appreciate if you could send us the link to the exact page where the definitive version is available, or, if possible, the version itself in a pdf document.
Meanwhile, our questions concerning the lack of communication around the launch of this new Action Plan remain unanswered.
You write that the Members of the European Parliament have been sent a draft version of the action plan, for their “information”. However, unlike earlier action plans and strategies, the European Parliament was not involved in the decision-making process. Thus, no parliamentary discussion could take place on the lessons that can be drawn from the evaluation of the former Action Plan before the new Action Plan was approved. We wonder why.
Furthermore the Commission undertook no effort to inform the members of the EU Civil Society Forum on Drug Policy of the approval process of the Action Plan. No message appeared on the Internet Forum for the CSF, in spite of the fact that this forum was especifically created (in September this year) for improving the information exchange between EU authorities and civil society. Again, we wonder why.
In the press release that announces the new Action Plan, it is written that a so-called “European Alliance on Drugs” is one of the major new initiatives of the Commission in drug policy. This initiative aims at “mobilising the citizens of Europe to play an active role in tackling the drugs problem”. In your own words, this new initiative is “a very recent and an evolving idea”. We would like to add: “and one that has never been discussed with, let alone approved by, European citizens”.
In 2006 the European Commission installed the EU Civil Society Forum, a yearly meeting of 26 European organisations that have been selected by the Commission. as a way to facilitate a direct dialogue between authorities and civil society on drug policy in the EU. As you know participants to this forum have expressed lots of criticism on the way this forum has been set up, but they also recognise that at the moment, it is the only tool that citizens have to participate in the decision-making process on policies that directly affect their daily lives.
In the first real meeting of the CSF in May 2008, the members of the CSF were invited to provide feedback on the new Action Plan 2009-2012. The meeting ended with a number of recommendations for this new Action Plan. In the draft Action Plan that was presented by the Commission in september, we have not been able to find any prominent place in the text where these recommendations had been taken into account.
Furthermore, in this Action Plan the Commission launched a completely new idea to involve citizens in drugs policy: a European Alliance on Drugs, an idea that has never been discussed neither in the Civil Society Forum meetings of December 2007 and May 2008, nor on the Internet Forum for the CSF.
Please understand us well: we are not against the idea of an an alliance, in fact we believe authorities and citizens should always try to work together in order to avoid any problems or harms related to drugs.
However, we think the creation of an “Alliance on Drugs” should be the result of a serious process of dialogue including an analysis of the impact of current drug policies between all those involved in the issue: national, regional and local authorities as well as citizens who are directly affected by drug policies: among others consumers and their surroundings.
This dialogue process has only just begun in the Civil Society Forum and it has already become clear that in many EU countries, the views of civil society organisations and authorities on drug policies are still rather incompatible. For instance those NGOs that offer “pill testing” at parties (a evidence-based method that has proven to have a positive impact on public health) are seriously hindered by government policies to send out police controls to these parties to stop people from taking drugs (an ideology-based approach).
The aim of this “European Alliance on Drugs” is to orchestrate so-called public support behind a European wide approach on drug policy that completely ignores the feedback of a forum that was especially created to enable citizens’ involvement in this policy.
In the press release, the European Commission writes that “a credible and effective drugs policy must be based on a solid understanding of the illegal market for drugs and the sharing of intelligence on the subject.”
We note a clear discrepancy between these words and the actions of the European Commission in this matter. In stead of respecting the outcome of dialogues with civil society in forums that were created after many years of efforts, the Commission apparently still believes it is possible to impose a drug policy on EU citizens calling the effort “alliance-building”.
We certainly hope that the year 2009 will improve the Commission’s insight in this matter.
Thanks for your indications on how to find the definitive Action Plan.
Best wishes
On behalf of Encod,
André Fürst, Switzerland
Jan Ludewig, Germany
Virginia Montañes, Spain
Joep Oomen, Belgium
Fredrick Polak, The Netherlands
Alessandra Viazzi, Italy
(members of the Steering Committee)
On Thursday 8 January, we received the following reply from the Commission :
Thank you very much for your message.
As far as the final version of the EU Drugs Action Plan is concerned, please refer to my previous message (quoted below for your reference)
The text has also been published in the Official Journal 20.12.2008 and is available in all Community languages at:
[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:326:SOM:EN:HTML
>http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:326:SOM:EN:HTML ]
(note from ENCOD: still this is not the direct link, but now there is a link on this page leading to the Action Plan: in English, en français, auf Deutsch, en español, en italiano, polski, in het Nederlands, paa svensk, em portugues.
Please let me know, if you’re not able to open/read the link.
As for the other points you’ve raised, I’m confident most of these will be addressed in the enxt meeting of the Civil Society Forum.
Kind regards,
Timo Jetsu
On 3 and 4 March, the proposal of the European Alliance on Drugs was discussed in the Civil Society Forum. There was overall agreement in Forum that the Alliance was a poorly conceived idea. On the basis of these discussions, the Commission declared that it will probably cancel the entire idea of the European Alliance.
Read the ENCOD comment on the European Alliance
If you have any suggestions, please send them to office@encod.org.
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