Speech by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio,
Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe
High Level Conference of the Mediterranean Network (MedNET) of the Pompidou Group
Strasbourg, 1 December 2009

Your Excellencies, Ms Deputy Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure for me to be here today, with our intergovernmental body formed already in 1971 at the initiative of the late President Georges Pompidou, or more formally named the Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs.

The Pompidou Group’s core mission is to contribute to the development of effective and evidence-based drug policies in its member states. It seeks to link Policy, Practice and Science and focuses on the realities of local implementation of drug programmes. The multidisciplinary nature of this Forum enables policy-makers, professionals and researchers to exchange information and ideas on a whole range of drug abuse and trafficking issues.


The shifting, dynamic nature of the drug phenomenon has required the Group to adapt its role in order to deal with emerging problems and changes in the drug situation. Flexibility and capacity for innovation are two key attributes that have assisted the Group in meeting this challenge.

Since 1999, the Pompidou Group, as a pan-European forum, undertakes a bridging role both between EU and non-EU European countries and towards our neighbours on the Southern Rim of the Mediterranean.

This co-operation dates back to a first conference organised in Malta when the idea of setting up networks in the Mediterranean region on drug issues was first raised. It was at the meeting of the "high-level Franco-Dutch Group on drugs", in May 2005, that the Netherlands and France decided to pursue this idea. The results were presented at a Conference in Amsterdam in 2006 which set up the MedNET network, to be run and coordinated by the Pompidou Group. Activities started the same year based on voluntary contributions from participating States.

Since then, this network aims to foster co-operation, exchange and transfer two-way knowledge between North African and European countries, as well as within the countries of the Mediterranean Basin.

The ultimate aim of the Network is better implemented drugs policies in all the participating countries, with emphasis on greater awareness of cultural factors that influence intervention policies.

The network is also a co-operation mechanism for professionals working on the ground: doctors, social workers, representatives of NGOs and public associations, researchers and policy-makers.

The initial focus of the project was on North Africa: Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Since then, the project has been extended and eight other countries, including Lebanon, have joined the project. They represent both the South and the North of the Mediterranean. Our objective is not to be an exclusive club, neither to become all-inclusive. We intend to co-operate with those countries that show an interest and are committed to engaging in common projects.

This is why, after this initial three-year period and in the light of its acknowledged successes, we are now organising this High Level Conference with policy-makers in charge of drug-use and drug-trafficking policies. We are very happy with the increased interest from other countries in the region and are grateful for the participation of a high level representation from Jordan in this Conference.

We intend to step up our co-operation with other European and International Institutions and Agencies. We welcome the participation of representatives of the Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the European Commission and the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

Our co-operation also extends beyond the governmental or inter-governmental participation and we are particularly keen to continue our co-operation with NGOs, researchers and practitioners and Let me particularly welcome Ms Farida Allaghi of the Mentor Foundation, who was appointed Executive Director of Mentor Arabia only a few weeks ago.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This Conference will look into the results of a Feasibility Study on the creation of a Mediterranean Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Abuse. I am keen to see the outcome on this and other points of the programme.

I am convinced that you will be able to enhance the co-operation across the Mediterranean, and make this network even stronger. The work of your Network has already been widely recognised and only last week the Permanent Correspondents of the Pompidou Group, the 35 countries which together form this Enlarged Partial Agreement, have decided to invite all the MedNet countries of the Southern Mediterranean Region to its Ministerial Conference on 3 and 4 November 2010 here in Strasbourg.

It will be an excellent occasion to further consolidate the role of the Network and, more generally, the links between North and South. This is an increasingly important part of the work of the Council of Europe. It is the full-time vocation of the Council of Europe’s North-South Centre in Lisbon. I could also mention that yesterday our Secretary General, Thorbjørn Jagland, signed an important agreement with the Al Jaber Foundation, which will sponsor projects for Euro-Mediterranean intercultural dialogue. Your Conference today is a further example of our attachment to this region. An example which was enabled by those countries that kindly provided us with Voluntary Contributions to make this event possible.

I wish you a very successful Conference and I would now like to give the floor to Ms Nawel Rafik-Elmrini, Deputy Mayor of Strasbourg in charge of the relations with the European Institutions.

Nawel, you have the floor.