EMCDDA: PARLIAMENT WANTS TO KEEP SEAT ON MANAGEMENT BOARD OF EU DRUGS AGENCY.

Parliament's Opinion is based on the report of German Socialist MEP Ozan Ceyhun. It was not supported by the EPP-ED group, which objected to amendments it felt extended the agency's mandate to making political judgements on drugs policies. One amendment notably says that EMCDDA should not simply collect data on drugs policies and consumption and supply trends, it should also analyse and evaluate the information.

On the administrative side, Parliament says it should have two representatives on EMCDDA's board of management but that the nominees should be MEPs, not scientists as is the case now. By contrast, the European Commission is proposing that the Parliament not be represented on the board at all, saying it creates a conflict of interest given that EMCDDA's budget must be signed off by Parliament. The Commission proposes having one nominee per Member State, two from the Commission and an observer from each country that has a co-operation agreement with the agency. Parliament also rejects the move to create a "steering committee" of five board members plus the Commission representative to prepare the board's work, saying it would be better to have a slimmer overall management board.

In the interests of legal security, the Parliament wants to insert a clause stating that the agency's headquarters shall be in Lisbon. In the haggling between Member States over the years for the seats of various EU agencies, there has been speculation that EMCDDA would be moved elsewhere as part of a trade-off. The MEPs demand that they be consulted each year on the agency's annual work programme, rather than just the Commission and the Scientific Committee being consulted as proposed. As for monitoring the agency's work, Parliament says the external evaluation provided for in the Regulation should also cover the agency's national contact points, the "Reitox" centres.

To improve the agency's links with the citizen, Parliament says that people should be able to write to EMCDDA and get a response in any official EU Treaty language, a right citizens already have with other EU institutions. EMCDDA...