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Prague, March 25th, 2009
The Deputy Minister of the Interior for European Affaiis, Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová, met the Portuguese Ambassador, José Júlio Pereira Gomes, on Wednesday March 25, 2009. It was a courtesy meeting on the occasion of Mr. Gomes’s installation at the office in the Czech Republic (from October 2008). During the meeting some CZ PRES priorities were briefly mentioned as well as the topics that will be discussed at the April meeting of the JHA Council in Luxembourg.
The Deputy Minister of the Interior for European Affaiis, Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová, met the Portuguese Ambassador, José Júlio Pereira Gomes, on Wednesday March 25, 2009. It was a courtesy meeting on the occasion of Mr. Gomes’s installation at the office in the Czech Republic (from October 2008). During the meeting some CZ PRES priorities were briefly mentioned as well as the topics that will be discussed at the April meeting of the JHA Council in Luxembourg.
Prague, March 24th, 2009
The Deputy Minister of the Interior for European Affairs, Lenka Ptáčková Melicharová, met the Japanese Ambassador, Chikahito Harada on Tuesday, March 24. It was a courtesy meeting at the occasion of Mr. Harada’s installation in the office in the Czech Republic (from October 2008). During the meeting some CZ PRES priorities were briefly mentioned.
Minister of the Interior, Ivan Langer, and European Commission Vice-President, Jacques Barrot, in the USA
| The Minister of the Interior, Ivan Langer and the European Commission Vice-President, Jacques Barrot, officially visited the USA on March 16 – 17, 2009. During the trip they met, among others, the Attorney General of the USA, Eric Holder, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Joe Lieberman. The Minister, Ivan Langer, summarized the reason for this visit to the USA as follows: “The purpose of our visit to the USA was mainly to exchange and receive information. We focused especially on visa policy issues, international protection of children, the fight against illegal content of the Internet, transatlantic cooperation and mutual legal assistance. This trip was an occasion to meet the new American administration. We would like to find out how Europe can help the USA and what the USA can do for Europe in the area of homeland security“.  |
 The arrival of the new US administration is an opportunity for a new relationship with old friends. Therefore, the topics of the meetings were the areas in which the cooperation between the EU and the USA could be intensified or, possibly, extended. These include, for example, the Visa Waiver Programme, where the EU requires full visa reciprocity; justice cooperation, the fight against terrorism, and also the fight against illegal content on the Internet. Regarding that topic, Ivan Langer added: “The protection of children and the fight against illegal Internet content is one of our priorities. We would like to contribute to the improvement of the international protection of children, especially in the area of fighting child pornography. “ The meetings regarding the Guantanamo prison were only informative: “Our task, as the EU Presidency country, is to negotiate a possible pan-European approach. It is in the competence of each state to decide whether or not to accept somebody from Guantanamo,“ said the Minister of the Interior. |
52nd Meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs
| The 52nd Meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs took place in Vienna on March 11 – 20 in attendance of the Czech Minister of the Interior, Ivan Langer. Its main topic was the success in the control of illegal drugs and the problems which result from their abuse and from drug traffic. This Commission meets once a year, and every ten years it elaborates a document called “Political Declaration“, in which it determines the global strategy of the fight against drugs for the following ten years. Ivan Langer acted at the meeting as a representative of the European Union and he presented, on its behalf, its attitude to the new Political Declaration, which was created this year after two years of work. In the EU’s attitude, the Czech Minister of the Interior especially emphasized the fact that in spite of some limited or regional success the global drug problem has not been improved or even stabilized in the last ten years. Together with the representatives of the European Commission he stressed the necessity of a balanced approach to drug policy respecting human rights, the reign of the law, protection of public order and public health. He paid special attention to the harm |
reduction measures, such as needle and syringe exchange for drug addicts, field work with drug addicts, and other interventions. He mentioned that in spite of ideologically motivated worries, this approach does not provably lead to legalizing drugs or to facilitating their abuse, and referred to a large number of scientific studies that prove the remarkable efficiency of harm reduction in the prevention of the spread of HIV and other diseases.
 The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs was established in 1946 and it is the main creator of the UN’s global drug policy. Its main members are 53 states, which are elected for a four-year period and whose mandates are divided among different regions. Each government has veto power. |
Questions for Dr. Zábranský, Adviser of the Minister of the Interior for Drug Issues
 Between March 11th and 20th, the 52nd meeting of the Commission on Nar-cotic Drugs took place in Vienna. How do you evaluate this recent event and its conclusions? The conference can be viewed either from the point of view of the presidential country of the EU and the success it achieved there, or from the point of view of an (anti)drug policy expert. Let us look at it from the point of view of our EU Presidency: The Czech Republic undoubtedly succeeded because it managed to articulate the principles of the joint process of all the twenty-seven countries during the discussions on the wording of the principal documents that the global anti-drug policy is going to be governed by for the next ten years. The Czech Republic also managed to coordinate this procedure and to keep it unified up to the last moments of the most important meeting of the UN Commission on narcotic Drugs (CND) in the last ten years. It is obvious that the negotiating power of a block of twenty-seven countries voting in a coordinated manner is different than that of only one of them, though it may be the largest or the richest one. Some of the large countries outside the EU did not like it very much: It was the first time they had been confronted with a successfully united approach on the ground of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and it presented to them a situation that they could accept only with difficulties. You can rest assured that it was not easy to maintain the unity: Within the EU there are countries with a highly restrictive anti-drug policy as well as countries with a policy focused mainly on reducing the damage arising from drug abuse, very often using innovative or controversial strategies without any ideological limitations. However, by sensitive, although sometimes tough, negotiations we succeeded in “driving” it. Our mission successfully culminated with the attitude to the Political Declaration and to the Action Plan, which were presented in Vienna on March 11 by the Minister of the Interior, Ivan Langer, on behalf of the EU and eleven other countries. The declarations were not any idle diplomatic phrases: We managed to point out very explicitly both the strengths and weaknesses of both documents, and the Minister was deservedly praised for his speech, whose echoes can still be heard among experts –and will be heard for at least a few more months. Our task now is to analyze the course of the 52nd CND in Vienna in a detailed way and to draw conclusions from it for the anti-drug policy and for related discussions within the EU. I believe that the Czech Presidency will continue to exactly reveal and aptly name the problems which it revealed during the coordination of the EU at the Vienna meeting. The main focus of the Vienna conference was on the success of the control of illegal drugs and of the problems that arise from their abuse and from drug traffic. How much |
progress have we made in solving this problem in the last few years? The answer to this question was included in Minister Langer’s introductory speech. Some countries have made great progress – for example, the EU countries. In some other countries the issue of drug production, selling, and abuse has become worse – that concerns mainly third world countries, a lot of the former Soviet Union countries, and others. In Ukraine and especially in Russia the largest HIV / AIDS epidemic outside Africa is going on, and it is being spread especially by intravenous drug abuse, and in Afghanistan and in some South and Central American countries there are large areas controlled by the drug producers or their protectors and not by the governments. As a result it can be safely said that the global community has not managed to reduce the demand for drugs or their production or the growing of plants used for the production of some drugs. Neither is there any evidence that these indicators have been stabilized globally – they have actually increased. From this point of view the last ten years that have passed since the declaration of the 20th meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs cannot be regarded as a successful period, and the EU countries, coordinated by the Czech Republic, tried to reflect this in the Political Declaration and in their official statements – not only by criticizing, but also by attempting to show a realistic way to a solution, without any idle propagandistic statements. You are an expert in the area of anti-drug issues. How do you think the situation in drug abuse in the Czech Republic has changed in the last few years? We can say that the situation in the Czech Republic in the last ten years has been stabilized as far as methamphetamine abuse is concerned, and the abuse of heroin and other opiates has decreased. After an abrupt increase at the end of the century the popularity of ecstasy is now decreasing as abruptly. The occasional marijuana smoking across the population is stabilized, but unacceptable. We have seen the first traces of cocaine spreading, but we do not know yet how serious this issue will be in the future. In all modesty I dare say that our experts in the areas of repression (i.e. especially the Police and the Customs Office), prevention, treatment, and harm reduction are above-average in the EU. If we consider the main criteria of judging the drug situation to be the occurrence of health damage among the population and the extent to which the drug issues threaten the general safety of the population, then our drug situation is also exceptionally good. However, it is the situation in the area of legal drugs in the Czech Republic that is becoming worse – we drink more and more alcohol in an increasingly unhealthy manner, so it is connected with most violent crimes. Also, tobacco consumption among the young is increasing as well as the number of deaths by heart and vascular diseases and lung cancer caused by tobacco. |