Formally established in 2024 replacing the EMCDDA
Executive Director: Alexis Goosdeel (Belgium), since 2016
Chair of the Management Board: Franz Pietsch (Austria), since 2022
Address: Cais do Sodre
1249-289 Lisbon
Portugal
Tel. (351) 211 21 02 00
Fax (351) 211 21 03 80
info@euda.europa.eu
https://www.euda.europa.eu/
About the EUDA
The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) is the central authority on illicit drugs in the European Union. Formerly known as the EMCDDA, the Lisbon-based agency contributes to EU preparedness on drugs through actions that anticipate and alert on dangers, whilst responding to emerging issues and learning from best practice in the field to assess the effectiveness of interventions.
The expertise of EUDA helps to ensure that the decisions of EU and national policymakers, professionals and practitioners are based on objective and verified facts, not ideology or moral and value judgements. EUDA identifies important drug-related threats, helping EU countries be better prepared to handle them.
Mission
New mission of EUDA focuses on contributing to EU preparedness on drugs through four main actions: anticipate, alert, respond, and learn.
Anticipate: future drug-related challenges and their consequences.
Alert: in real-time on new drug risks and threats to health and security.
Respond: to help the EU and its Member States strengthen their responses to the drug phenomenon.
Learn: to facilitate EU-wide knowledge exchange and learning for evidence-based policies and interventions.
Strategy
The EUDA continues to contribute to a healthier and more secure Europe, through better-informed drug policy and practice. To achieve this, it applies a multidisciplinary approach to deliver quality, timely and comparable data. The agency has to adapt to changes in the drugs field as well as available resources and customer needs. This has seen it evolve from largely an information provider into a more proactive service-oriented agency.
Values
The EUDA staff are committed to the EU and its overall values. More specifically, four core values guide the work:
- Scientific excellence — advancing evidence-based knowledge to underpin sound decision-making and research
- Integrity and impartiality — working professionally, objectively, impartially, independently and transparently
- Customer focus and service orientation — anticipating customers’ evolving needs and producing timely and tailored material to help anticipate new threats and adopt informed policies
- Efficiency and sustainability — prioritising activities that deliver value, respect cost-effectiveness and promote corporate sustainability
Customers
The EUDA has the following primary customers:
- EU institutions
- National decision-/policymakers
- Professionals working in the drugs field
- Scientists and researchers
- Civil society organisations, including organisations of people who use drugs and of communities affected by the consumption and sale of drugs or drug-related crime.
Governance
The Management Board is the agency’s main decision-making body. It has one representative from each EU country, Norway and Turkey, two from the European Commission and two independent experts chosen by the European Parliament. It is supported by an Executive Board and a Budget Committee. The EUDA Executive Director is the agency’s legal representative and accountable to the Management Board.
The agency concentrates its work where it may provide maximum added value. It complies with EU good governance rules and codes of conduct, ranging from good administrative behaviour and transparency to data protection and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Regular external evaluations provide an independent check on the agency’s performance.
Innovation
Innovation is essential if the EUDA is to keep pace with revolutionary changes in the extent and nature of the drugs problem and in the world in which we live. It therefore seeks creative, interdisciplinary and collaborative solutions for the contemporary challenges faced. It has expanded its monitoring capability by complementing routine data collection with information from an expanding range of leading-edge sources, providing more timely and rounded analyses. In an era when digital transformation becomes vital for organisations to deliver value to stakeholders, the agency is pursuing the use of new technologies for business optimisation and communication.
Source: EUDA