Members of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) start a two-day visit to the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) today where they will hear presentations on the agency’s contribution to a more secure and a healthier Europe.
The visiting delegation will be composed of LIBE members: Ana Gomes (Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats/S&D; Portugal); Maité Pagazaurtundúa Ruiz (Group of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe/ALDE; Spain) and Ignazio Corrao (Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group/EFDD; Italy)(1). The MEPs will be joined by: two political advisors Étienne Maury (ALDE group) and Emanuele Sanguineti (EFDD); members of the LIBE secretariat and a representative of the EP office in Portugal. Accompanying the delegates will be Wolfgang Götz (Germany), member of the EMCDDA Management Board designated by the European Parliament.
EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel will update the visitors on the preparation of an EMCDDA strategy to guide the work of the agency to 2025. Scientific staff will present the key features of the EU Early Warning System on new psychoactive substances and exchange views on the ongoing revision of the EU legal mechanism for monitoring and taking action on NPS (Council Decision 2005/387/JHA of 10 May 2005). Also explored will be: synthetic drugs and cannabis in Europe, from a supply and policy perspective; developments in promoting best practice and related challenges in Member States; and European and international drug policies in the wake of UNGASS 2016.
The EMCDDA has close working relationships with the European Parliament, mainly through the LIBE Committee, for content-related aspects, and through the Committees on Budgets (COBU) and Budgetary Control (CONT), for budgetary matters.
The LIBE Committee is responsible for the protection within the territory of the European Union of citizens' rights, human rights and fundamental rights, including the protection of minorities. Every year, the EMCDDA presents its European Drug Report, General Report of Activities and work programme to the European Parliament via LIBE Committee meetings.
This week’s visit will end with discussions on future cooperation between the EMCDDA and the European Parliament (2).
