Officials from the EU and China address drugs and drug precursors

On 25 September, Floriana Sipala, European Commission Director for Internal Security and Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, represented the EU in the 4th EU-China Dialogue on Drugs in Beijing. Discussions covered drug policy and monitoring of the drug situation, law enforcement action, synthetic drugs and new psychoactive substances, precursors and chemical control, prevention and treatment, as well as developments in international forums.

The dialogue followed the 9th EU-China Joint Follow-up Group Meeting on Drug Precursors, held the previous day. These dialogues also offered the opportunity for the first bilateral meeting with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on internal security topics, such as organised crime, economic crime, online fraud, online crime and social media, terrorism and trafficking in human beings.

Ms Sipala was accompanied by Luis Melgar, First Secretary of the EU Delegation to China, Matthias Petschke, European Commission Director-General for Taxation and Customs (DG TAXUD), Commission specialists in the field of organised crime and drugs policy, as well as Europol and European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) managers. They were joined by representatives of the Council of the European Union, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and several EU Member States. On the Chinese side, counterparts were the National Narcotics Control Commission, the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Both sides agreed to regularly and timely exchange on all drug policy developments. This includes the drug situation, control of substances, further action on precursors, prevention and treatment, including ways to address drug-related harm, drug monitoring, law enforcement, and forensic drug analysis, among others. Both sides are appointing contact points to this end and will additionally exchange views ahead of the upcoming sessions of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

These dialogues reaffirm the importance of the 2017 strategic agreement between the Ministry of Public Security and Europol. They were also the occasion for the EU to reiterate its principled opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances, and in particular for drug-related offences.