POMPIDOU GROUP

The Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs (Pompidou Group) is an inter-governmental body formed in 1971 at the initiative of the late French President Georges Pompidou. Initially, this informal forum consisted of seven European countries – France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, United Kingdom – that shared their experience of combating drug abuse and drug trafficking. The cooperation was subsequently extended to include new countries and currently the Pompidou Group comprises 35 Member States. In 1980 the Pompidou Group was incorporated into the institutional framework of the Council of Europe, and today it is part of the Directorate General of Social Cohesion. Shortly after joining the Council of Europe, the Pompidou Group has defined its key role: collecting and coordinating information in order to closely monitor trends in drug abuse. Since 1990, technical cooperation has been extended to countries of Central and Eastern Europe which are not members of the Pompidou Group, and countries outside Europe, like Canada and the USA, have also been invited to take part in the activities of the Pompidou Group.

The Pompidou Group’s core mission is to contribute to the development of multidisciplinary, innovative, effective and scientifically based drug abuse policies which are being implemented in its Member States. The above mentioned requires political, practical and scientific link, with the emphasis on the necessity of local implementation of drug programmes. The shifting, dynamic nature of the drug phenomenon has faced the Pompidou Group with the need to adapt its role in order to deal with emerging problems and changes in the drug situation. Flexibility and the ability to accept new ideas are two key features that have assisted the Pompidou Group in addressing these challenges.

Since its work is characterized by the presence of international background due to the presence of many European and international bodies working on the drugs issue, the Pompidou Group provides a multidisciplinary forum at the wider European level where it is possible for policy-makers, experts and researchers to discuss and exchange information and ideas on all aspects of drug abuse and trafficking problems. Furthermore, the Pompidou Group has assumed a bridging role between EU and non-EU European countries and towards neighbouring countries of the Mediterranean area.

Because of its association with the Council of Europe, the Pompidou Group ensures that policy recommendations are consistent with national policy as elaborated in other fields of Council work, such as public health, social cohesion and penal policy, with emphasis on ethical issues.

The role of the Republic of Croatia in the work of the Pompidou Group

Since 1997, the Republic of Croatia, as a member of the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe, participates in its regular activities. Pursuant to the decision of the Croatian Government on 5 February 2009, Dubravko Klarić, M.A., Head of the Office for Combating Drugs Abuse, was appointed Permanent Correspondent of the Republic of Croatia to the Pompidou Group.

Subsequent to the proposal of the Netherlands as the previous Chair of the Pompidou Group and the support of Poland as the new Chair for the period 2007-2010, the Republic of Croatia has been honoured to enter the Committee of Permanent Correspondents of the Pompidou Group in the new mandate, along with Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Norway, Austria and Malta. The Committee of Permanent Correspondents basically manages the activities of the Pompidou Group; it is made up of the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson of Permanent Correspondents and the Platform Coordinators, and normally meets twice a year in order to make decisions regarding the future work of the Pompidou Group. In particular, it provides multi-sectoral coherence of the work, supervises implementation of planned activities, decides on requests for ad hoc activities, monitors the expenditure for activities, reports to Permanent Correspondents on the progress in implementing the Work Programme of the Pompidou Group and organizes regular meetings of the Permanent Correspondents. The Pompidou Group's main work is focused on specific platforms of expertise, whose main function is to encourage the introduction of expert knowledge and experience into the national policy-making process, and identify and promote examples of good practice. Pursuant to the above, new members of the Committee were named, who are also Coordinators of individual Platforms, as follows:

1. Piotr Jabloński, Chairman of the Permanent Correspondents (Poland)
2. Francisco Perez Perez, Vice Chairman of the Permanent Correspondents (Spain)
3. Raphael Bayer, Coordinator of the Prevention Platform (Austria)
4. Lilly Sofie Ottesen, Coordinator of the Treatment Platform (Norway)
5. Lidija Vugrinec, Coordinator of the Criminal Justice Platform (Croatia)
6. Claude Gillard, Coordinator of the Airports platform (Belgium)
7. Richard Muscat, Coordinator of the Research Platform (Malta)
8. Patrick Sansoy, Coordinator of the Platform on Ethical Issues and Professional Standards (France)
9. Gabriel Denvir, Coordinator of the Multisectorial Platform (United Kingdom)

The Pompidou Group will in future concentrate its work on improving the work of the seven existing Platforms as professional forums for collecting signals from everyday practice, exchanging experiences and best practices with the aim of developing the existing system. Special emphasis is placed on encouraging evidence-based policy-making.

The Republic of Croatia, as the coordinator of the Criminal Justice Platform, has presented the group's vision stating that the underlying platform should serve as a strong link between the EU and other European countries in order to facilitate the further development of methods, introduction of new models and knowledge transfer in the areas of criminal justice that are of particular interest to the countries. Taking into account the breadth of these topics, the platform will address legal issues and improving / strengthening inter-agency partnerships. Four main thematic areas of the platform during the upcoming four year period are distinguished as follows:

1. Options for a so-called "mandatory" treatment and other alternatives to imprisonment are the areas that require a multidisciplinary approach of both criminal justice services and health and social sector
2. Control of precursors and medical products, emphasizing the issue of coordination of competent national agencies, currently uncontrolled chemical / medical substances that could be used in the production of narcotic drugs and their status during the transit
3. Legal basis and successful methods of joint investigation teams
4. Promoting cooperation among judicial, customs and police authorities