EURODRUG - INFORMATION LIST OF THE EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES

Dear friends,
Despite the repeated promises of the Drugs Coordination Unit of the
European Commission to organise the next session of this Civil Society
Forum in January 2010, we have not received any indication that this
session is going to take place. Therefore, today, December 16, 2009, we
have sent the following letter to all members of the Civil Society Forum,
the European Commission and the members of the European Parliament
Committe on Civil Liberties. We keep you informed on the follow up of
the proposal which you can also read with relevant links on
http://www.encod.org/info/ENCOD-PROPOSES-NEW-SESSION-OF-THE.html
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Dear Colleagues,
Herewith the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies
wishes to present a proposal for the organisation of the next Session of
the Civil Society Forum on Drug Policies in the EU. We call for this
session to be held before 1 March 2010.

Why do we present this proposal?

The Drugs Coordination Unit of the European Commission (DCU),
responsible for organising the three sessions of the Civil Society Forum
that were held so far, has failed to produce the framework for an
effective agenda and workplan for the CSF. On the last session of the
CSF in March 2009, DCU’s representatives announced that the next session
of the CSF would take place in January 2010, and that the agenda would
be prepared by a working group formed at the last session. This
announcement was repeated by DCU’s representatives during a meeting with
us in september 2009.

Today, December 16, 2009, there is no news from the DCU as to when and
where the next CSF session will be held. Neither have the members of the
working group engaged with setting the agenda of this session been
contacted to start preparing it.

The Civil Society Forum has been created, as the Commission writes on
its own website, "to increase informal consultation and the input of
civil society on drug-related activities, policy proposals, policy
implementation and priorities of the EU Drugs Strategy and the EU Action
Plan on Drugs."

However, until now DCU’s representatives have done everything to avoid a
discussion on the impact of current drug policy and the perspectives of
alternative ways of regulation to take place within the framework of the
CSF. In response to our question why this discussion is impossible, the
DCU representatives have said that they have limited mandate to act on
this field: "The formal mandate of the Commission is over the control of
precursors and money laundering. Member states have autonomy to decide
which drug policies they will adopt." Never in the process of creating
the CSF (which involved conferences, publication of a Green Paper and a
long lasting selection procedure ongoing since January 2006) had this
argument been mentioned.

In March 2009, the European Commission presented the “Report on Global
Illicit Drug Markets 1998 – 2007" (the Reuter-Trautmann report). This
report contains a valuable database and conclusions that confirm those
of other evaluation reports on drug policies in the EU of past years.
These conclusions are that current policies are failing in their main
objective, which is to reduce the demand and supply of illicit drugs,
and that they are a crucial factor in generating and increasing harm to
individual drug consumers, their direct surroundings and society at large.

The authors of the report mentioned above have not been asked to produce
any recommendations. According to DCU representatives, the report “does
not contain sufficient data to be called an evaluation”. Thus, it seems
likely that the report, the result of one year of scientific research
will soon be forgotten.

From 8 to 12 March 2010, the next annual meeting of the UN Commission
on Narcotic Drugs will be held in Vienna, Austria. On this meeting, the
European Union representatives will defend common viewpoints on the
future course of global drug policies. We believe that it is of
essential importance that the next CSF session takes place before the
start of this meeting, and that the Reuter-Trautmann report should be
discussed in this session. The aim of the session would be to formulate
a set of recommendations concerning current drug policies and proposals
to adopt alternative schemes, that are based upon the experiences and
arguments brought forward by the participants.

We propose the next Civil Society Forum Session to take place before 1
March 2010, and formally ask the European Commission to organise the
logistical aspects of this session as soon as possible.

We believe it is crucial that the agenda working group has a meeting in
Brussels at least three weeks before the session in order to adopt the
agenda.

This agenda should also include rules concerning the content and
structure of the debate (division of topics, duration of interventions,
limitation to one argument at the time, provision of data and sources,
etc.) and the role of the chairperson.

We request the European Commission to announce at least before January
15, 2010, whether it will organise the next session of the CSF before
March 1st, 2010.

In case this is necessary, Encod will make efforts to organise the
session in an appropriate setting, with the means that are at our disposal.

We will keep you informed, and like to make use of this opportunity to
wish you a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

Sincerely yours

Marisa Felicissimo, Belgium
Antonio Escobar, Spain
Fredrick Polak, The Netherlands
Jorge Roque, Portugal

The Encod Steering Committee
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EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES
Lange Lozanastraat 14 – 2018 Antwerpen - Belgium
Tel. + 32 (0)3 293 0886 / Mob. + 32 (0)495 122644
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http://www.encod.org