WRITTEN QUESTION E-1360/02

by Gerhard Schmid (PSE) to the Commission

(14 May 2002)

Subject: Legislation on the manufacture and the placing on the market of drugs in the applicant countries

1. Which applicant countries have transposed into their legislation Council Directive 92/109/EEC(1) on the manufacture and the placing on the market of certain substances used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances?

2. In which countries are improvements necessary?

3. Where exactly are the improvements necessary?

(1) OJ L 370, 19.12.1992, p. 76.

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(26 June 2002)

In the framework of the pre-accession strategy, candidate countries are aligning their legislation to the Community acquis. The Commission is following this process via the national programmes for the Adoption of the Acquis (NPAA) from the candidate countries, the organisation of screening sessions of the relevant acquis and the assessment of updated and detailed information on legislative developments in the context of the negotiation process. For Turkey a process of legislative scrutiny is being implemented aimed inter alia at identifying gaps in Turkish legislation with the acquis.

According to the available information, the candidate countries have adopted measures which either refer specifically to control and monitoring the trade of substances that can be diverted to the manufacture of illegal drugs, or address the issue under more general legislation. Details of the legal instruments concerned are as follows: Poland adopted Law No 125 item 1367 on 6 September 2001. Hungary has recently revised its regulations through Government decree No 272/2001 (.XII.21.) Korm. which entered into force on 1 January 2002. Slovenia, adopted the Illicit Drug Precursors Act (Ur.l. RS, t. 94/2000) in 2000. In the same years the Slovak Republic adopted Act No 268/2000 and Romania adopted Law No 143/2000. Lithuania deals with the issues mainly through Law No VIII-1207 of 1 June 1999. Cyprus adopted the Precursor Substances (Manufacture and Placing on the market) Regulation in 2001. Estonia has adopted Government Regulation No 231 of 28 November 1997 on the procedure for handling of precursors. Latvia controls the trade of these substances through a law of 1996, further implemented by various legal orders. Other countries include the measures of control and monitoring of drug precursors not in a specific legal act, but within the framework of a general law on illegal drugs. In the Czech Republic the transposition of the Directive is included in the Act No 167/1998 Coll. on Dependency Producing Substances (amended in 1999). The situation

in Bulgaria is similar: its Law on Control of Narcotic Substances and Precursors was adopted in March 1999, and in Malta, whose Dangerous Drugs Ordinance provides the framework for the implementation of the Directive. In the case of Turkey, Law No 2313 on Control of Narcotic of 1933 was amended in 1996 by Law No 4208 to provide that the production, import, export, transfer, possession, purchase and sale of substances listed in Tables I and II annexed to the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances requires the permission of the Ministry of Health; failure to obtain the permission is a criminal offence.