How to screw your relation with civil society (a European case study)

Joergen (Danish Users Union), Matt (IHRD),
Milena (INPUD, Belgium/Bulgaria), Luiz (Psycotropicus, Brazil), Stijn (INPUD Belgium)

and Berne's back side (Swedisch Users Union;)

DU Activists Organizing

Dear Friends,

People who use drugs from all over Europe participated in the 2-year process for the involvement of civil society in EU drugs policies, organized by the EU Commission.

The end of this process - and the beginning of the involvement - is the organization of the first European Civil Society Forum On Drugs in December 2007.

Despite our constant and constructive participation in the preparation of this civil society involvement in EU drugs policies, the European Commission didn't take into account European Drug User Organizations' applications for membership in the European Civil Society Forum On Drugs. The European Commission excludes people who use drugs from the forum about people who use drugs.

We'll not let this pass by easily. INPUD and allies are teaming up together to push for change and greater involvement.

I hereby present to you:

How to screw your relation with civil society

The Story Of The EC's Civil Society Forum On Drugs

January 2006 – December 2007

• European DU were present at, and participated in the European Conference "Civil Society and Drugs in Europe" (Click to read: Conference conclusions).

• The EU Commission then released the Green Paper on the role of Civil Society in Drugs Policy in the European Union and organized an open consultation on this document. 23 European DU and DU organizations together wrote a reply to the EU's Green Paper.

• The EU Commission released the Results of the open consultation on The Green Paper on April 18, 2007 and called for civil society organizations to apply for member ship in the European Civil Society Forum On Drugs, to be held in the end of the year 2007.

• Finally, on October 31 2007 , the EU Commission released the list with accepted applicants.

• European DU organizations and INPUD where excluded from the forum, so we wrote a letter to the EC's MR. Carel Edwards and asked who where the people responsible for this.

• Mr. Edwards replied to our letter and confirmed the exclusion of people who use drugs, but he did not answer to our pertinent questions.

• So INPUD wrote a second letter to make sure that the EC would understand the position they maneuvered themselves into.

• Meanwhile, The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) and DrugScope (UK) refused the invitation to take part in the Civil Society forum on drugs because of the poor and amateuristic organization of the forum by Mr. Edwards staff. The crappy organization was named “an insult for civil society” by Professor Gerry Stimson. (Among other things, the London based IHRA Director received an air ticket Finland – Brussels to attend the forum (!!))
  
  
  

• ENCOD, IHRA and DrugScope released a statement on December 12, one day before the forum.

• Despite the European Commissions exclusion policy, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network enabled European DU to participate in the forum. European DU Activist Milena Naydenova will speak in the EC's forum on behalf of INPUD and European DU.

It's an ongoing story, ...
We'll keep you closely informed

Stijn Goossens
Executive Director

International Network Of People Who Use Drugs

INPUD vzw
GuldensporenStraat 88/2
2140 Borgerhout
Belgium

Phone: +32 3 297 8451
Mobile: +32 479 982 271

email: Stijn@INPUD.org
website: www.INPUD.org

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INPUD's reply to the EC's Mr. Carel Edwards affirmation on our exclusion from the Civil Society Forum on drugs

Dear Mr. Edwards,

We should probably thank you for answering us back, although we find your answer irrelevant, even insulting, instead of helpful, as you suppose. More over, your reply is illustrative for your and your staff unprofessional organization of the Forum. So, if you allow us, we will make few remarks on your letter. As far as INPUD is concerned we would like, in particular, to draw your attention to the following facts:

The criteria for selecting the participants in the Forum might be quite clearly stated in the Green Paper, but in practice they already became too blurred. Based on the information you publish, we encountered nine (up to now) organizations, that are invited to the Forum and do not have such clear track regarding their participation in the process, prior to the Forum. INPUD might have no clear track as a network in general, except for this only “track” - the participation of our members from the very first moment on in the process of the involvement of the civil society in the dialog about the future EU drug policies. We took part in the conference the EC organized in January 2006. We consulted our network and sent our opinion and remarks on the Green Paper, etc. People, who use drugs, are the most affected by the policies on drugs and that is the reason why since 2006 we have not missed even one occasion in the process prior to the Forum. Because of the visibly eroding confidence of the European citizens in the European ideal and the European institutions, European DU really believed that this time the EC was serious about engaging the civil society and that this time the EC will act in the only right way to regain the European citizens confidence in the Union that was lost over the past few years.

We never insisted that INPUD is the only eligible DU organization to take part in the debates. We just asked you why there are no DU representatives involved, which does not mean “why INPUD is not invited”. We can not accept that neither of the drug users organizations that have applied for the Forum is not good enough even to fill in one of the four initially unoccupied slots, which is obviously your opinion.

As far as your response to our specific questions is concerned:

- We asked for three names, not for political talks, so permit us not to accept that for a concrete answer.

- Your opinion that DU can not speak on behalf of themselves, but they need somebody else, appointed by you to protect DU interests is so insulting and outrageous, so we will not discuss it further.

And as you constantly refer to the Action Plan, let us quote: “... In terms of the ultimate goal it should be clearly understood that the Strategy and Action Plan are not an end in themselves; even if all the objectives they contain are reached we must conclude that they have failed if the result is not a measurable reduction of the drugs problem in our societies.” So, no actual need for evaluation. We have numerous evidence that the problem gets worse in many aspects, most alarming and evidential of which are the significant uprise of OD-related deaths in many EU countries, not to mention the unmeasurably high prevalence of HCV among the injecting DU and the renewed uprise in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Because of all said above we fear that a “possible” “future” dialog with DU will be too insufficient and too late. It is a waist of time for you, a waist of money for the EU citizens and again many deaths for us.

We hope you understand that because of the seriousness of the situation for thousands of DU across Europe we will not let you impose us again the role of the “silent minority” so easily.

Sincerely,

Stijn Goossens
Executive Director

International Network Of People Who Use Drugs

INPUD vzw
GuldensporenStraat 88/2
2140 Borgerhout
Belgium

Phone: +32 3 297 8451
Mobile: +32 479 982 271

email: Stijn@INPUD.org
website: www.INPUD.org

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ENCODs' Letter To The EC (About The Exclusive Civil Society Forum On Drugs)

Manuel (ENCOD) and Stijn (INPUD)
in the European Parliament

PUBLIC LETTER TO EUROPEAN COMMISSION

To: Carel Edwards
Head of Drug Coordination Unit
European Commission
DG JLS
B- 1049 Brussels

23 November 2007

Dear Carel Edwards,

Herewith we would like to thank you for your letter of 31 October 2007,
announcing the organisation of the first meeting of the Civil Society
Forum on Drugs in the European Union, on 13 & 14 December 2007.

We note from your letter that 26 organisations have been selected to
participate in this meeting, out of a total of 75 respondents to the
call for applications that expired on 17 August 2007.

Several questions can be raised concerning the selection process for
this forum.

According to the Green Paper on the role of civil society in Drug Policy
in the European Union, published in June 2006, the objective of the
dialogue with civil society is ‘to explore the scope for bringing those
most directly concerned by the drugs problem more closely into the
policy process’ (p.3).

Several important stakeholders in the European drug debate, such as
organisations representing drug consumers, are not (enough) represented
in the current forum. On the other hand, some organisations have been
selected in spite of the fact that they did not participate in the
previous consultation. The same counts for some organisations that, from
a first glance, do not seem to fulfil the eligibility criteria to join
the forum as they were published by the Commission in April this year.

In December 2006, the European Parliament approved a budget increase of
1 million EURO to the 2007 budget for Drugs Prevention and Information.
The specific purpose of this budget increase was to “support dialogue
with civil society on drug policy”. We assume the major part of this
budget increase has yet to be spent, and there ought to be enough margin
in the budget to invite 75 representatives to the two days conference in
Brussels.

In April this year, the European Commission published the key results of
the open consultation with stakeholders that took place through the
Green Paper. One of the six main conclusions of this consultation was:
“The Forum should be inclusive rather than exclusive, with transparent
selection criteria.”

Therefore we wish to make the following enquiries

1. Can the Commission explain what are the reasons for not inviting all
75 organisations that applied to the August 17 deadline to the first
meeting of the Civil Society Forum?

2. Can the Commission indicate, for each organisation that applied to
the August 17 deadline, and for each organisation that ultimately made
it to the selection, the specific reasons for selection and omission
from selection?

We look forward to your responses to these questions, which will help to
ensure the transparency and therefore the legitimacy of the forum.

Best wishes,

ENCOD European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies, Belgium

AKZEPT Bundesverband für akzeptierende Drogenarbeit und humane
Drogenpolitik, Germany

FAUDAS Federación Estatal de Personas Afectadas por la Política de
Drogas, Spain

INPUD International Network of People who Use Drugs, Belgium

LCA Legalise Cannabis Alliance, United Kingdom

PIC Pazienti Impazienti Cannabis, Italy

SDB Stichting Drugsbeleid, Netherlands

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