The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is an agency of the European Union. Established in 1993, the EMCDDA is located in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

.

Mission and role

The Centre's role is to gather, analyse and disseminate "factual, objective, reliable and comparable information" on drugs and drug addiction and, in so doing, provide its audiences with a sound and evidence-based picture of the drug phenomenon at European level.

Among the Centre's target groups are policy-makers, who use this information to help formulate coherent national and EU drug strategies. Also served are professionals and researchers working in the drugs field and, more broadly, the European media and general public.

At the heart of the Centre's work is the task of improving the comparability of drug information across Europe and devising the methods and tools required to achieve this. As a result of efforts to date, countries can now view how they fit into the wider European picture and examine common problems and goals. A key feature of the drug phenomenon is its shifting, dynamic nature, and tracking new developments is a central task of the EMCDDA.

Network, report and partnerships

The Centre obtains information primarily from the 'Reitox network': a group of focal points in each of the 27 EU Member States, Norway, the candidate countries to the EU and at the European Commission. This human and computer network links the national information systems of the 27 Member States, Norway, and their key partners to the EMCDDA. It acts as a practical instrument for the collection and exchange of data and information.

The annual report on the state of the drugs problem in the European Union and Norway and an online statistical bulletin offer a yearly overview of the latest European drug situation and trends. Meanwhile online country situation summaries provide a pool of national drug-related data.

It works in partnership with non-EU countries as well as with international bodies such as the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, the World Health Organisation, the Council of Europe

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

's Pompidou Group

Pompidou Group

Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs is an inter-governmental body formed in 1971 at the suggestion of the late French President Georges Pompidou.- History :...

, the World Customs Organization

World Customs Organization

The World Customs Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. With its worldwide membership, the WCO is recognized as the voice of the global customs community...

, the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) and the European Police Office.

New premises

Since 2009, the EMCDDA shares new premises with the European Maritime Safety Agency

European Maritime Safety Agency

The European Maritime Safety Agency is a European Union agency charged with reducing the risk of maritime accidents, marine pollution from ships and the loss of human lives at sea by helping to enforce the pertinent EU legislation...

 and Jacques Delors European Information Centre near Lisbon's Cais do Sodré

Cais do Sodré

Cais do Sodré is the railway station in Lisbon, Portugal, serving westbound suburban route to Cascais resort. It is adjacent to the Lisbon Metro station of the same name which is the terminus for subway's Green Line...

train station. The building project, managed and approved by the Port of Lisbon Authority, was subject to some controversy from citizens' groups in the city.

External links

• European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
• The state of the drugs problem in Europe
• Health-EU Portal the official public health portal of the European Union