Title: Regional drugs programme
Author: Daniel Pitoňák
Last saved by: malakova
Company: Odbor zahraničnej pomoci ÚVSR

Regional drugs programme |

Approved | Management Committee meeting N° 82 on 18-19 October 2000

Duration - for contracting
Duration - for disbursement

31 December 2002

31 December 2003

Amount | EUR 10 million
Tendering | European Commission
Technical implementation | Consortium/partnership of different EU Member State administrations

Current implementing authority

BE BELGIUM:
European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200 Wetstraat
1049 BRUSSELS

Programme code : | ZZ0016
Sector : | SP...Public Health

Strengthening of cross-border cooperation on drug law enforcement | 6.0 EUR million
Transposition of the acquis in the field of money laundering | 2.0 EUR million
Transposition of the acquis in the field of synthetic drugs and precursors control | 1.5 EUR million
Management and evaluation | 0.5 EUR million

Background 

The Phare multi-beneficiary drugs programme was launched in 1992. The budget reached EUR 22 million between 1992 and 1997, with a budget of EUR 11 million for 1998; the 1998 programme has to be implemented by December 2001, at which time that programme will cease. The programme aims to facilitate the transposition of the acquis in the field of drugs, focusing on support for institution building to establish the required legislation and standards and to reinforce operational capacities in drug control structures. The programme helps the candidate countries to develop efficient and effective drugs policies and measures to counter the supply and illicit trafficking of drugs and reduce the demand for drugs.

The European Union drugs strategy for 2000-2004, adopted at Helsinki in December 1999, places emphasis on the progressive integration of the candidate countries. To transpose the strategy into concrete actions, the European Union action plan on drugs 2000-2004 was adopted at the Feira European Council in June 2000.

The production and cross-border trafficking of illicit drugs is to a large extent controlled by organised crime. Most heroin seized in the European Union has been transported along the various Balkan routes, crossing the central and eastern European countries, in which depots have been set up for further transportation in smaller quantities. Illicit activities related to drug trafficking are expanding in the Baltic states; the growing involvement of the central and eastern European countries and the CIS countries in international drug trafficking and the increasing drug seizures in central Asia and neighbouring countries point to a potentially increasing use of the Baltic countries for transit shipment of drugs. The increased drugs transit through the candidate countries for subsequent trafficking in the European Union necessitates improved regional cooperation among law enforcement agencies. The various measures taken under the Joint UNDCP-$CR$Phare drug law enforcement programme in south-eastern Europe needs to be extended to the other candidate countries. The existing level of cooperation would be greatly enhanced by the provision of assistance to improve capacities for surveillance/evidence gathering and to improve intelligence capacities for the collection and processing of criminal data.

In recent years, the European Union has adopted a series of measures to intensify action against money laundering. These measures aim to ensure that concrete steps are taken to trace, free, seize and confiscate the proceeds of crime and enhance better cooperation between financial intelligence units of the Member States as regards the exchange of information. Under the Phare multi-beneficiary drugs programme, considerable resources were committed to activities to combat money laundering, with the last project ending in March 2000. The projects have had good results and most of the candidate countries now have functioning systems to combat money laundering with enacted legislation and established financial intelligence units. However, for most of the countries, there are still deficiencies and further assistance is needed, in particular at the judicial level, with legal advice for prosecutors and courts and specific training for magistrates as regards judicial follow-up. In addition, knowledge transfer is needed on the organisation of the financial police, effective identification procedures and supervision by national banks and other technical issues.

The European Union's drugs strategy for 2000-2004 pays special attention to the control of chemical precursors and stipulates that further measures are needed to enhance the effectiveness of action against the illicit trafficking of synthetic drugs. Particular attention needs to paid to improving joint action, increasing co-operation against production and trafficking (with focus on improving co-operation with industry) and improving international co-operation, with particular emphasis on the candidate countries. Since 1993, substantial Phare resources have been used to help the candidate countries to prepare and adapt their legislation and measures on precursors and to strengthen the administration and enforcement of controls. The Phare synthetic drugs project commenced in May 2000, with the aim of supporting the candidate countries in adopting and implementing the acquis in this field; the main focus is on the reduction of the production and trafficking of illicit drugs and the early identification of new synthetic drugs. These activities need to be continued and intensified, to provide a longer-term perspective and increase the impact of assistance.

Programme objectives 

The main objective of the programme is to address the trans-national drug problem through enhanced and co-ordinated action in line with the European Union drugs strategy and action plan for 2000-2004.

The specific objectives of the programme are to
•	strengthen the capacities of the candidate countries in central and eastern Europe in various areas of drug enforcement, to ensure their alignment with the acquis and best practices of the Member States and to increase the effectiveness of regional cooperation between law enforcement services on supply reduction
•	transpose the anti-money laundering acquis in the candidate countries and further refine the legal, institutional and judicial anti-money laundering framework, in line with international standards, to provide for a European framework to combat money laundering,
•	transpose the acquis in the candidate countries in the fields of synthetic drugs and precursors control, to develop a comprehensive regional policy and operation strategy on the control of precursor chemicals and the fight against (new) synthetic drugs.

Programme description 

Strengthening of cross-border cooperation on drug law enforcement EUR 6,000,000

Phare will provide support for enhancing inter-agency and cross-border cooperation among drug law enforcement services, with the aim of disrupting major drug trafficking channels and dismantling criminal organisations involved in drug trafficking. The project will support the candidate countries in their steps to implement the acquis and standards and best practices of the European Union Member States in the field of drug law enforcement.

European Union expertise, training and equipment will be provided in clearly defined specialist areas of drug law enforcement, to increase seizures and disrupt criminal organisations involved in drug trafficking. The target group will include police, border police and customs services.
Focus will be on
•	strengthening controls against drug smuggling at selected airports, seaports, road and rail border crossings
•	improving intelligence gathering, analysis and the sharing and development of shared investigative strategies against criminal organisations involved in the production and trafficking of drugs
•	developing a risk-analysis system in cooperation with the customs and police
•	strengthening capabilities for sub-regional container profiling and tracking
•	enhancing the network of operational officers.
The project's overall strategy will include addressing the drug situation on the basis of common objectives and using regional cooperation mechanisms among agencies involved in drug law enforcement; it will also aim to build up national structures to support the joint regional efforts. The project will cover the most advanced and sophisticated methods and tools of drug enforcement and will help to fight organised crime.

Transposition of the acquis in the field of money laundering EUR 2,000,000

Phare will provide support for transposing the anti-money laundering acquis in the candidate countries and for further refining their legal, institutional and judicial anti-money laundering frameworks in line with European Union and international standards, with a view to providing for a European framework to combat money laundering.

Expertise will be provided by European Union Member State experts both at government and regulatory level and by experts from the financial sector. The main target groups will be supervisory authorities, financial intelligence units, financial police, prosecutors, courts and financial service providers.
Focus will be on
•	preparing the candidate countries for the implementation of the second Directive on money laundering; legal assistance will be provided through workshops and seminars at the (sub-) regional level, to refine legislation and ensure its full compliance with European Union and international standards, to prepare the grounds for the second Directive, and to create the basic institutional conditions for implementing the main elements of the second Directive effectively
•	strengthening the capacity of financial intelligence units, in particular by improving, reinforcing and integrating the structural and operational capacities of specialised institutions, such as financial intelligence units, supervisory authorities and law enforcement agencies, to improve their effectiveness; know-how and Member State best practices will be transferred through (sub-) regional workshops, seminars and short-term technical assistance, aimed at implementing CRIMORG 70 provisions and at encouraging concrete arrangements for cooperation between financial intelligence units (possibly including limited equipment provision), as well as developing a multi-agency multi-national approach to combating money laundering (a series of (sub-) regional training initiatives may be launched, such as template courses, follow-up analyst courses, advanced banking courses, also involving the training of reporting institutions and companies and banking supervisory authorities)
•	strengthening judicial follow-up, through exchanges of experience and training for police and customs units, prosecutors and courts and assistance with approximating criminal law and criminal procedural law, to facilitate international cooperation; support will aim to set up effective cooperation schemes between the law enforcement services (through the exchange of experience and through training police and customs officers on tracing and analysing money laundering schemes), enhance cooperation between financial intelligence units and other police units with prosecutors and strengthen cooperation between prosecutors themselves
•	enhancing regional and pan-European cooperation and exchanges of information between law enforcement authorities, financial intelligence units and financial institutions.

Transposition of the acquis in the field of synthetic drugs and precursors control EUR 1,500,000

Phare will provide support for transposing the acquis in the candidate countries in the fields of synthetic drugs and precursors control and developing a comprehensive regional policy and operational strategy on the control of precursor chemicals and the fight against synthetic drugs.

The main target group will be the police, public prosecutors, customs, health ministries, trade ministries, licensing authorities, forensic laboratories, the pharmaceutical industry and the chemical industry.

Focus will be on
•	further developing European Union compatible legislation
•	further strengthening institutions responsible for enforcing legislation and improving coordination among them
•	improving regional inter-agency cooperation
•	improving (network-based) information exchange and the development of systems to monitor precursor chemicals and (new) synthetic drugs (including building up capacities to participate in the European Union early warning system on new synthetic drugs, increasing functional integration with agencies/networks such as Europol, the EMCDDA and Interpol and upgrading and integrating national information systems into regional information systems ).

Management and evaluation EUR 500,000

Management support will be provided for the monitoring and evaluation of the various regional and national Phare drugs projects. Within this framework, the programme will seek to coordinate the different projects carried out at regional and national level and to ensure a coherent development of multi-disciplinary and integrated drug strategies in the candidate countries, in line with the European Union action plan on drugs adopted at the Feira European Council.

Support will mainly include
•	monitoring implementation at programme and project level
•	assessing the results/impact/sustainability of project results
•	encouraging the coordination and coherence of Phare drug-related activities at national and regional level
•	technical advice on transposing the acquis and developing institution building support
•	technical advice on developing and implementing the European Union action plan on drugs
•	promoting continuing networking and information exchanges between the candidate countries, the European Union Member States and other interested interlocutors.

Implementation 

The European Commission will implement the programme centrally. Close coordination will take place with the Commission's delegations in the candidate countries. Effective and ongoing coordination will take place with the Justice and Home Affairs National Contact Points of the European Union Member States and regular information exchanges will occur within the Council, in particular the Horizontal Drugs Group.

For the implementation of the programme, the Commission will involve the Phare National Drug Coordinators and the operational contact persons nominated in each partner country. It is proposed that, within each country, the programme will be coordinated by the national drug coordination body, to provide the necessary coordination with Phare national drugs projects.

The three projects will be implemented by a consortium/partnership of the administrations of different Europe Union Member States. For this purpose, consultations will be held with the Member States or specialised national, inter-governmental or international organisations for implementing the projects. Direct agreements will be concluded for this purpose.