Dr. Leospace
Alpiniste Kundalini
- Inscrit
- 28 Oct 2005
- Messages
- 686
Copy-n-paste from http://www.encod.org/info/ENCOD-PROPOSE ... F-THE.html:
"Herewith the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies announces a Public Hearing on Drug Policies in the European Union, to be held on Tuesday 23 February 2010, from 10.00 AM onwards, in the European Parliament, Brussels.
The hearing will be organised in collaboration with Member of European Parliament Michail Tremopoulos of Greece (GREENS/EFA).
Why do we organise this hearing?
In December 2007, after many years of lobbying by ENCOD and others to establish a forum for dialogue between civil society and authorities in the European Union to discuss the impact of current drug policies, the Drugs Coordination Unit of the European Commission (DCU) installed the Civil Society Forum. In May 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 the ENCOD Steering Committee in september 2009. The working group never came off the ground. In December 2009, the session was postponed with no announcement of a new date.
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 both civil society organisations and Members of the European Parliament discuss the conclusions of the Reuter-Trautmann report before the next CND meeting.
We have formally requested 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 and have asked the Members of the European Parliament to support this request.
As we did not receive any response from the Commission, we decided to organise a Public Hearing in the European Parliament. The aim of the hearing 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.
Access to this hearing (which will be held in English only) is public and for free. If you wish to attend this meeting, it is necessary to register. Please copy the following form and send it before 15 February 2010 by email to [email protected]"
"Herewith the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies announces a Public Hearing on Drug Policies in the European Union, to be held on Tuesday 23 February 2010, from 10.00 AM onwards, in the European Parliament, Brussels.
The hearing will be organised in collaboration with Member of European Parliament Michail Tremopoulos of Greece (GREENS/EFA).
Why do we organise this hearing?
In December 2007, after many years of lobbying by ENCOD and others to establish a forum for dialogue between civil society and authorities in the European Union to discuss the impact of current drug policies, the Drugs Coordination Unit of the European Commission (DCU) installed the Civil Society Forum. In May 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 the ENCOD Steering Committee in september 2009. The working group never came off the ground. In December 2009, the session was postponed with no announcement of a new date.
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 both civil society organisations and Members of the European Parliament discuss the conclusions of the Reuter-Trautmann report before the next CND meeting.
We have formally requested 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 and have asked the Members of the European Parliament to support this request.
As we did not receive any response from the Commission, we decided to organise a Public Hearing in the European Parliament. The aim of the hearing 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.
Access to this hearing (which will be held in English only) is public and for free. If you wish to attend this meeting, it is necessary to register. Please copy the following form and send it before 15 February 2010 by email to [email protected]"
