Stefania Bianchi
BRUSSELS, Jan 25 2006 (IPS) – A European Union meeting called this week to discuss how civil society can contribute to combating drugs is like trying to build Rome in two days, campaigners say.
The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, will host a conference Thursday and Friday (Jan. 26 and 27) on engaging civil society in implementing the bloc s 2005-2008 action plan on drugs.
The action plan, which was adopted by the EU in June 2005, aims to significantly reduce the prevalence of drug use among the population and to reduce the social harm and health damage caused by the use of and trade in illicit drugs.
The Commission says the strategy takes a balanced and integrated approach to the drugs problem, and concentrates on the two major aspects of drug policy, demand reduction and supply reduction, and also covers a number of cross-cutting themes: international cooperation, research, information and evaluation.
Campaigners against drugs say the plan was designed and adopted without seriously consulting civil society, and fear it will not contribute to the growing drugs problem throughout the bloc.
The new EU action plan on drugs is a non-document, there is nothing new in it. It will repeat the mistake of the former ones, while both experts, civil society organisations and the European Parliament have indicated the possible alternatives, Joep Oomen, coordinator of the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies(ENCOD), a platform of 120 civil society organisations from 24 European countries told IPS Wednesday.
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As many national drug policies, it still maintains that the drug problem can be reduced effectively by a combination of law enforcement and health care. But these two are incompatible, he added.
ENCOD estimates that the cost of drug-related law enforcement in the whole of the EU is 6.5 billion euros (7.9 billion dollars) a year, or 18 million euros (22.1 million dollars) a day.
The European Commission says the EU has up to two million problem drug users and that the use of drugs, particularly among young people is at historically high levels.
The drugs phenomenon is one of the major concerns of the citizens of Europe, and a major threat to the security and health of European society. The incidence of HIV/AIDS among drug users is also causing increasing concern in several member states.
But ENCOD says that so far European citizens have had no possibility of being consulted in the elaboration of drug policies.
Until today, EU authorities have been trying to close the box of Pandora that has been created with the prohibition of drugs. By keeping the citizens away from the decision-making forums, they thought they could hide the truth about the war on drugs: that it is a costly, failing and counter-productive affair, Oomen said.
The organisation also fears that this week s meeting will fail to improve the consultation process between the EU and civil society groups.
This conference comes late, is organised too quickly and is likely to become a show in which the Commission will express its good intentions, try to collect some abstract opinions about the issue which it will then interpret its own way, said Oomen.
The two day conference will be enough to get a clear indication if the Commission is serious about its commitments this time. It is now well understood by a growing number of EU citizens that legal regulation of the drugs market would improve the living standards of millions of people, while significantly diminishing one of the world s major criminal income sources, he said.
At a time when the EU has huge difficulties to bridge the democratic deficit with its citizens, its current drug policies are an extremely negative example of what kind of democracy the EU pretends to be. These ideas could start to challenge traditional ways of thinking drug policies at a European level, and it is not sure that EU authorities are willing to cope with this, he added.
ENCOD will present a statement to the conference that calls for an independent body to supervise a dialogue process with equal voices for civil society and authorities.
What we need is an opportunity to sit around the table with several European networks of civil society organisations involved in the drugs issue together with EU authorities in order to start planning a concrete plan to establish a genuine consultation process, Oomen added.
However, the European Commission says it hopes that Thursday s meeting will improve relations between the EU and civil society, and acknowledges that more needs to be done.
We don t agree that the EU has adopted its drugs plan without any serious consultation of civil society, but we do agree that dialogue can improve, and that is why we have organised this conference, Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesperson for EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini told IPS Wednesday.
We intend to have an open exchange of views with the representatives of civil society, to see together how we can improve the dialogue with them, he added.
In December 2004, the European Parliament approved a set of recommendations towards future EU drug policy. These envisaged a radical change in EU drug policy and advocated harm reduction and a scientific and balanced approach instead of maintaining drug prohibition.
ENCOD says the report was ignored in both the EU drug strategy for 2005-2012, and in the EU action plan for 2005-2008. Since March 2005, ENCOD has been campaigning among EU citizens for the integration of these recommendations in the EU action plan.