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To step up the fight against illegal drugs, the Council yesterday adopted its negotiating mandate on the proposal on the EU Drugs Agency, meant to turn the existing European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction into a fully fledged agency and strengthen its role. The new regulation will provide the agency with the means to respond to new health and security challenges posed by illegal drugs in a more efficient way, better support member states and contribute to improving the situation at the international level.

The collection, analysis and dissemination of data will continue to be the agency’s main task of the agency, but under the enhanced mandate it will also be able to:

• develop general health and security threat assessment capabilities to rapidly identify new threats, and conduct regular foresight exercises to identify future challenges
• cover specifically poly-substance use, which is the consumption of drugs together with other licit or illicit substances and which is becoming increasingly common
• strengthen its cooperation with the national focal points, whose position would be reinforced, enabling them to provide the agency with relevant data on the national drug situation
• put in place a network of laboratories which will enable the agency to access forensic and toxicological information
• develop evidence-based interventions, to raise awareness and issue alerts when particularly dangerous substances appear on the market

The regulation will also clarify the role of the agency in the area of international cooperation, so that it can fully engage in activities in this area and respond to requests from third countries and international bodies.

Next steps

Negotiations with the European Parliament will start once the latter has adopted its position.

Background

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction was set up in 1993 in Lisbon, Portugal. Its aim is to provide factual, comparable information concerning drugs, drug addiction and their consequences to the EU and the member states, to inform their policy making and guide initiatives to tackle drugs. Its functioning has greatly improved the availability of information on drugs and drug addiction across the EU, as well as internationally.

• Regulation on the European Union Drugs Agency (general approach)
• EU drugs policy (policy page)

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