EU, Russian drugs agencies sign MoU on cooperation

The European Union and the Russian Federation will be sharing information on drugs more systematically in future thanks to an accord signed Friday by the Lisbon-based EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for Narcotics Traffic and Control (FDCS).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in the margins of the EU–Russia summit taking place in Mafra under the Portuguese Presidency of the EU. The signatories were EMCDDA Director Wolfgang Götz and FDCS Director Viktor Cherkesov.

Present at the signing ceremony were the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and the Prime Minister of Portugal, José Sócrates.

The new agreement will allow for an exchange of information and expertise in a number of areas, including:

• illicit drug use and trafficking in the EU member states and the Russian Federation;

• new drug types and emerging drug use trends;

• technologies for the production of illicit drugs;

• newly emerging trafficking methods;

• legislative and administrative measures to reduce illicit drug use; and,

• prevention of drug-related crime.

The MoU is the fruit of bilateral talks initiated in Lisbon in 2004 and of subsequent working sessions between the EMCDDA and FDCS held in the course of 2006 in Moscow (January 2006) and Lisbon (September 2006).

Among others, the MoU foresees:

• developing or improving joint indicators to assess the drug situation;

• participation of FDCS experts in EMCDDA meetings and vice versa;

• mutual access to statistical information and exchange of scientific research results; and,

• training and capacity-building and the exchange of programmes, plans and practices.

Commenting on the MoU, Wolfgang Götz said: “The Russian Federation is the EU’s largest neighbour following the 2004 enlargement, and expansion of our common borders brings with it both common challenges and opportunities for cooperation. Among these challenges are drug use and its health consequences, drug trafficking and related illegal activities. We look forward with enthusiasm to close and collegial relations with the FDCS on the broad range of issues which characterise our drug problems today.”