Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at a time when expressions like ‘bringing the European Union closer to its citizens’ and ‘good governance’ are on everyone’s lips, an examination of the way the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction works, and of its scientific output, proves quite astonishing, as its conclusions are virtually non-existent. Like the increasing number of centres that are being set up in order to conceal our differences, this one, in its five years of existence, has done nothing to justify the millions of euros that are pumped into it each year. If you compare the amount of money which it is allocated with that available to national bodies, one would expect to see in-depth studies leading, as stipulated in the definition of its aims in Article 2, to the provision of objective, reliable and comparable information concerning drugs and drug addiction. This Centre ought to be in a position to establish definitions and uniform indicators with a view to carrying out an evaluation of the various anti-drugs policies implemented in the Member States, from both a health and socio-economic as well as a law-and-order perspective. When will we get to know, for example, what the consequences have been of the prohibitionist policy adopted in France or of the regulatory one adopted in the Netherlands? The independent assessment of the activities of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the conclusions of which were published in March 2000, is very specific regarding the serious mismanagement of the board of directors and of the REITOX network, which gathers information on drugs and drug addiction. The reports that we are looking at today are about expanding the Centre to Norway and to the 13 candidate countries. On this issue we must agree, but would it not be better to reform this body beforehand, so that it might finally serve a useful purpose? New members should certainly be welcomed, but with what in mind? Is the idea to reproduce the failure we have witnessed over the past few years, but on an even larger scale? To add to the length of the beautifully presented annual reports which achieve precisely nothing? It is high time that the European Union became aware that, a long way from the Centre’s magnificent premises in Lisbon, thousands of people are directly faced with the health and social difficulties engendered by drug dependence. We are not asking it to deal with such problems, we are simply asking that it should analyse them. Hundreds of varying initiatives are being implemented in Europe by both institutions and associations, which focus either on criminalisation or risk reduction. What is the Centre waiting for to evaluate these strategies? How is it that Member States are being so reluctant to cooperate in evaluation? Is it possible that there is a fear that the results may not be that great politically? I therefore join the rapporteur in arguing in favour of the idea of a real reform of the Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, in respect both of the way it functions and of expanding its activities. This, moreover, is a necessary precondition to taking on new members.

Political group: Verts-ALE