Mexico will become the 39th member of the Council of Europe’s drug policy cooperation platform The Pompidou Group.

It was announced on 30 November by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

Earlier this month in Venice, Ambassador Santiago Onate Laborde of Mexico met with Jan Malinowski, Executive Secretary of the Pompidou Group at a conference in Venice to discuss membership.

In particular the Pompidou Group’s efforts to support balanced and innovative drug policies, the executive training programmes, as well the Group’s profound contributions to the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) in 2016, were among the key for Mexico’s decision to join.

The Pompidou Group provides an international forum for policy-makers, professionals and researchers to discuss and exchange information on the whole range of drug misuse and trafficking problems. In order to carry out this mission, it adopts a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to all drug problems and employs a variety of working methods.

Mexico will formally join the group as of 1 January 2017.