On Thursday, MEPs endorsed a broader mandate for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) that would transform it into an EU Drugs Agency.
Civil Liberties Committee MEPs have adopted a report creating the European Drugs Agency and endowing it with new competences. The new agency would have a stronger capacity for analysis and monitoring, and a faster and more efficient early warning system. When new psychoactive substances are discovered, it would develop a risk assessment in cooperation with the European Commission, Europol and the European Medicines Agency. To boost the preparedness of the EU, it could also adopt health and security threat assessments. The Agency is also tasked with helping national authorities collect data, establishing a network of toxicological laboratories, and promoting best practices in the field of prevention, risk and harm reduction, treatment, care and rehabilitation.
Evidence-based interventions and a focus on polysubstance use
In the adopted text, MEPs wanted to highlight the health, social and human rights dimensions of drug and substance use, and make sure that its research and data collection takes into account gender perspectives. They support an evidence-based, integrated, balanced and multidisciplinary drugs policy in full compliance with human rights obligations. The agency’s broader mandate is also intended to allow it to respond to polysubstance use, or the consumption of multiple substances at once or in quick succession. The proposed mandate was adopted with 52 votes in favour, 1 against, and 2 abstaining.
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After the vote, rapporteur Isabel Santos (S&D, PT) said:
“We welcome the expansion of the EMCDDA into a fully-fledged agency. Equipping the soon-to-be agency with the right resources and tools to be able to, more efficiently and more timely, identify and address current and future challenges related to drugs in Europe is of the outmost importance, in the context of an ever-changing, increasingly diverse and very dynamic drug market. This was the goal we pursued, while shifting the original proposal excessive focus on law enforcement, supply, security and control-related issues towards a more significant emphasis on harm reduction, health, social and human rights dimensions.”
Next steps
Next, the report will be discussed by the European Parliament plenary, after which it will form the EP’s position in negotiations with the Council on the final form of the law.
Source – EU Parliament