Council of Europe

Following the adoption of the 2011-2014 Pompidou Group Work Programme, the first meeting of the ad hoc expert group on the prevention of drug use at the workplace, took place on 30 June 2011 at the Council of Europe Paris Office, Paris.

All of the Pompidou Group member States were invited to nominate national experts with recognised knowledge in the occupational health field to participate in the expert group.

The aim of the meeting was be to define the organisation of work and to fine-tune the methodology with regard to achieving the following outputs:

• to understand, and hence deal better with, individual factors (such as personal vulnerabilities and skills) and environmental factors (such as the social, economic and cultural context) conducive to drug consumption in the workplace;

• to provide benchmarks for all active partners to strengthen the framework in which any monitoring or checks may be conducted, regulated or prohibited;

• to improve exchanges of information between member countries and co-operation with other international bodies active in this field, particularly the International Labour Organisation and World Health Organisation, to make the entire body of texts and conventions which clarify or govern this matter at international level available;

• to rectify any shortcomings noted in prevention and safety measures.

The results of the work was presented at the high level conference on "Alcohol, drugs and prevention in the workplace: What are the issues and challenges for the Government, the Company and the Staff?" (14/15 May 2012, Strasbourg) and will be used as a basis to set up a policy to prevent addictive behaviour with due regard for personal freedoms and a lever to improve working conditions. The related documents can be found below.