The new European Union Medicines Agency (EUDA) will focus on the monitoring of new substances and cross-border cooperation to tackle health and safety threats related to illegal drugs in the EU.
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Following a European Commission proposal for 2022 to strengthen the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), EUDA officially started operations in Portugal this week.
“As a result, [the agency] “It will do an even better job than the current one of warning Europe about the dangers of drugs,” European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said at the agency’s official opening in Lisbon.
The worrying consumption statistics revealed in the 2024 European Medicines Report will see the EUDA focus on strengthening medicines preparedness in an increasingly complex environment with an “increasingly complex drug phenomenon and the emergence of powerful new substances”.
The annual medicines report found that there is now a wider range of substances on the EU market that pose serious public health risks due to the relative ignorance of consumers and the scientific community.
By the end of 2023, EMCDDA will be monitoring more than 950 new psychoactive substances, 26 of which were identified for the first time in Europe that year.
“The complexity of the medicines market makes any analysis, predictions and adoption of responses more complex and challenging,” said EUDA Executive Director Alex Goosdir.
He added that the agency’s work will focus on three main challenges: the recent increase in polydrug use, drug-related violence and the introduction of new synthetic substances in the EU.
EUDA will introduce a new European Medicines Alert System, which will issue alerts when new medicines appear on the market, and a European Threat Assessment System, which will help member states anticipate medicines-related challenges.
The agency’s international position will also be strengthened by cooperating with other EU agencies, such as Europol, and developing cooperation agreements with third countries.
Strengthening international cooperation
To coincide with the agency’s launch, EUDA signed a business agreement with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The two parties will work together to exchange expertise and best practices on health and social responses to drug problems, including prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social integration, and to share data on emerging psychoactive substances (NPS) and establish a drug early warning system in Ecuador.
Speaking at the press conference, Commissioner Johansen said cooperation on drugs with Latin American countries, which has strengthened significantly in recent years, was of great importance to the EU.
She warned of the threat of drug-related violence and the presence of European criminal groups specialising in drug trafficking.
“Almost all [criminal] “Groups operate across borders, they operate across the Atlantic, and it’s important to build transatlantic relationships because you need networks to fight networks,” she said.
The EU also has an agreement with Peru (its first with Latin America, due to be concluded in 2023) and with Colombia.
As part of its new mandate, EUDA will also sign agreements with Bolivia, Brazil and Mexico to strengthen cooperation.
