EU adopts a strategy to combat drug trafficking

Brussels – Over the past ten years, the amount of drugs seized each year in the EU has increased dramatically: ecstasy has doubled, methamphetamines have tripled, and cocaine has increased sixfold. The figures put forward by the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner, tell two truths: on the one hand, national authorities are making progress in the fight against drug trafficking, on the other, “Europe is reaching a tipping point.” Therefore, the European Commission presented today (4 December) a new strategy and action plan against drug trafficking. 

“Today, we are taking urgent measures to change direction. We are sending the drug lords and their organisations a very clear message: Europe is fighting back,” thundered Brunner at the press conference. The figures, again, show a disturbing picture: 419 tonnes of cocaine seized in 2023, 500 synthetic drug laboratories dismantled every year on EU territory. “These are also human lives lost: 7,500 Europeans per year, not to mention the bloodshed, the violence, the corruption, the social damage that results from the illegal drug trade,” the commissioner added. 

The strategy outlined by Brunner revolves around five key actions: improving preparedness and response to drug-related threats—with a leading role for the newborn EU Drugs Agency (EUDA)—protecting public health by strengthening prevention, treatment, and reintegration, and enhancing security through stronger laws against organised crime. Key actions also include strengthening public-private cooperation to improve the detection of drugs smuggled through mail and parcel delivery services in the EU, and a new EU port strategy to enhance port security, a privileged channel of entry for criminal networks.

We must also “redouble our cooperation with partner countries,” emphasised Brunner. The EU will work on stronger partnerships with third countries to “strengthen and expand international alliances and increase operational cooperation, technical assistance and capacity building.” Brunner did not rule out that sooner or later “levers we have as an EU can be used,” along the lines of the controversial possibility of suspending certain trade concessions with developing countries that do not cooperate on migrant returns. 

In parallel, the European Commission has compiled 19 operational actions across six priority areas, which constitute the Action Plan against drug trafficking. These include expanding the operations of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre – Narcotics (MAOC-N) to combat maritime drug trafficking, with renewed support from Frontex and Europol, the creation of a new database on synthetic drugs by the EUDA, so that member states can better identify emerging substances, and new guidelines and training for law enforcement to detect and dismantle laboratories. 

On synthetic drugs, the Commission has proposed new rules to clarify and digitise the monitoring and control of drug precursors and synthetic precursors. These are chemicals normally used in many industrial and pharmaceutical processes, which often end up in the hands of criminal networks that use them to produce synthetic drugs and new psychoactive substances.