Four long-standing members of the EMCDDA Management Board received awards this week in recognition of their extraordinary dedication and service to the agency. The recipients were:
Mr Franz Pietsch — Chairman of the Management Board since 1 January 2022. Mr Pietsch has been Austrian member of the Board since 2002. He is currently Deputy Director-General and Head of the Human Medicines Law Division at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection.
Mr Claude Gillard — Founding member of the EMCDDA and Board member since 1994. Mr Gillard was Vice-Chair of the Board for two terms (2010–12 and 2013–15) and has been Chair of the EMCDDA Budget Committee since 2003. Mr Gillard is a Legal Counsellor at the Belgian Ministry of Justice.
Dr João Goulão — Former Chair of the Board (2010–12 and 2013–15) and member since 2005. Dr Goulão is General-Director at the General-Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD).
Ms Meni Malliori — Representative of the European Parliament on the Board. Ms Malliori has been a member of the Board as representative of Greece (1994–99 and 2010–14) and as representative of the European Parliament (2016–18, 2019–21 and 2022–24).
The awards were presented by EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel who praised the representatives for their many years of commitment and hard work.
The Management Board, the main decision-making body of the EMCDDA, is convening in Lisbon this week for its second meeting of the year. Items on the agenda include the adoption of the draft budget for 2023, the Single Programming Document for 2023–25 and Work programme for 2023, the state of play of ongoing negotiations for a new mandate for the agency and an EMCDDA implementation plan for the expected new regulation.
