 Yn y bwysig fydd y gweithio am gyflawni, rydych chi'n ddweud yn 2019 yn y rhanau sydd wedi, ddweud yn ddweud. Felly, rydw i'n cael ei bod yn seithio i gyd yn y panel honno, ond rydyn ni'n fawr i'n grwm i'r gweithio i'r ymddangos i ei ddweud mewn Llywodraeth a Llywodraeth i'r gweithio i'r cyfrifio gyda'r cyfrifio ac yn cyflawni. The commissioner has launched many reports with us in the past, including the previous drug markets report, and we're very happy and honoured to have him with us again today. We also have on the panel the EMCG director, Alexi Goosdale, and the Europol executive director, Madame Catherine de Boll. First of all, the commissioner will speak, so I'd like to pass the floor to the commissioner. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a nice day. As it was said before, I'm more than happy to share this event with you today. You know that I'm running the last minutes here in Brussels. I was supposed to be in Strasbourg today, but I decided to share this moment with you. And I'm more than happy to share this moment with two good friends and very capable directors of their agencies, Catherine and Alexis. But out of that is the high sensitivity of this issue. I had embraced all the efforts made by EMCD from day one, and I'm more than happy to see that there are very concrete and tangible results in our common efforts. So, again, I'd like to express my thanks to you and to your staff, Catherine and Alexis, and the EU directs agency for the tremendous believe me work you've done during these past years to address the challenges related to issues, to drug issues. The evidence provided in the third European drug market report and the links to organized crime, it draws a major contribution to informing us policy makers as well as all those involved on the ground. It's very important that we hear together today because drugs is as much about health as it is about security. If we want to truly protect our citizens, the two must go hand in hand. Ladies and gentlemen, this report presents a worrying picture of Europe's drug market, one that is evolving rapidly. Drugs are increasingly potent and pure when they arrive on the market. There has been a record number of seizures, which together with increased production in the European Union, points to growing availability of illicit substances. We have also seen a dramatic increase in new and often highly potent synthetic substances appearing on the market. These results in more drug overdoses, deaths and individuals seeking help from treatment providers and emergency services, but also in more violence and crime. As you know, organized crime benefits significantly from the drug trade. Moreover, violence and corruption long seen in drug-producing countries is now increasingly evident within our home, within the European Union. This is linked in part to the huge profits that the illicit drugs trade providers and the growing willingness to use violent means to extend market share. It is also driven by Europe's growing importance as a drug-producing area. Organized crime, as you know, is forward looking and quick to innovate in order to reduce threats to its business model or seize new opportunities. Drug markets have become more digitally enabled. When purchased online, they can be rapidly transported across borders and delivered to consumers. This creates new challenges for law enforcement and this means we must be equally innovative and forward looking in our responses. The drug market is now one of the major sources of income for organized crime and is linked to other areas of criminality or even terrorist activities. It is an important driver for the recruitment of young people into criminal organizations and gangs. Let me be clear, the increasingly global nature and reach of groups involved in drug production and trafficking is a major cross-border health and security threat. Confronted with such a threat, the European Union must step up its efforts to fight these criminal activities while keeping drugs policy anchored on a balanced and evidence-based approach. At the EU level, I can say that our efforts the last five years have started to bear fruits. The latest action plan on drugs legislation, which adopted new psychoactive substances, provides a strengthened response to the newly emerging health and security challenges in the area of illicit drug use and trafficking. Moreover, our work with our international partners is starting to gain traction. For example, Europe in cooperation with Eurojust and the law enforcement authorities of Germany, the Netherlands and the United States took down the second largest market on the dark web known as the Wall Street market. Dear friends, I suspect that this will be my last press conference as European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship. Believe me, it has been a privilege to serve the Union these last five years and you all know why. When I started with you, no one knew, no one could imagine that migration and security would raise to the top of the European and not only to the global agenda and stay there. And unfortunately, they will be there for many years. This commission made security a priority from day one. We have taken many decisive decisions to modernize the European security framework through new legislation, through reinforced operational cooperation between member states, and through strengthening the role and involvement of our agencies. The European Union's drugs agency in Europe, as well as all of the agencies in the justice and home affairs family, have played, believe me, a critical operational role in our policies. Without them, we would all have done our jobs less well. Over the last five years, we have come a very long way and have accomplished much, but that work is not finished today. It will continue under the new commission. And when it comes to our fight against drugs, we need to continue showing determination and commitment in order to strengthen our fight in all its aspects for our youth, our citizens and of course our societies. Once again, I would like to express my gratitude both to Catherine. She had her name day in Greece yesterday and to Alex, who is speaking Greek, so I tried to link them both to my country because I'm going back home and I want to keep this friendship alive for the future. They've done a fantastic job. I'm grateful to them. Europe is in good hands. Commissioners come and go, but the agencies are here and all the ones who have been striving for the last six years to keep the European project and the European vision alive. And during the last five years, we were all confronted with huge challenges that they put at stake the European project. In the heart of that was migration and security. But in all my efforts, I was accompanied by capable people, convinced Europeans that are here with me today and I wish them all the best for the future. Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you very much, Commissioner. I'd now like to pass the floor to Alexi Gorsdale. Thank you. Dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. First, I would like to thank all the staff of EMCDDA and the staff of Europol that have been working those three years, collecting the information, making all the analysis. Of course, I have a special thanks to my good and close colleague, Catherine de Boll, the Executive Director of Europol for support and for very close and very fruitful cooperation. The report covers trends along the supply chain from production, trafficking to distribution and sales. Even if today we are going to speak more about market than about the problems associated to the use of those substances. As the Commissioner said and is putting us under challenge because we launched together the previous report. So what has changed? What is new? The main answer is that the European drug market is changing faster than before. Both under the influence of internal and external drivers and you have in the report a very detailed and holistic analysis of those changes. What we observe today is the hyper production of drugs within and beyond EU borders which is leading to high availability of natural and synthetic substances. This means that now consumers have access to a diverse range of highly potent and pure products at a very affordable price. As the Commissioner mentioned, mounting concern is the rise in drug related violence and corruption within the EU and this is a very worrying evolution of the situation over the last five years. First of all, the drug market remains a major source of income for organized crime groups in the EU and we estimate that the Europeans are spending around 30 billion of euros every year for the retail level. It doesn't encompass the value or potential values of seizures or any interference with the drug business. Here we talk only about the money that is spent by people who are using drugs in Europe. Around two-fifth of this total, 39% is spent on cannabis, 31% on cocaine that has taken out the second place, not only as the second most consumed drug but also in terms of market value and heroin is the third with 25%. Finally, amphetamines, metamphetamines and MDMA ecstasy represent 5% of that market. Let's have a quick look at the key drug markets, let's then put under the microscope. Cannabis is the largest drug market in Europe, worth at least 11.6 billion of euro, with some 25 million of Europeans who have used cannabis at least once last year. While cannabis herb and resin still dominate, we see new products that are appearing on the drug market and this makes monitoring of the potency and potential health effects essential. We also observed increased violence that is associated to the cannabis business between organized crime groups and this is putting another strain on law enforcement activities. Let's have a look at heroin and other opioids. Opioids still account for the largest proportion of arms associated with drug use and the heroin market is estimated at least at 7.4 billion of euros per year. There are approximately 1.3 million of people who are considered as problem opioid users, mainly of heroin. Talking about market and trafficking, the Balkan route remains the key corridor for heroin into the EU, but there are signs of increase there in trafficking along the southern route, particularly through the Suez canal. There is also evidence of the dimension of the chemical precursors that are needed to produce those drugs and those precursors, they are being produced in Europe and they are being smuggled from the EU to heroin producing areas. We also noticed, although not in the same proportion in the United States, that there are highly potent synthetic opioids like the fentanyl derivatives that are responsible in the US for the big wave of drug related death, while they represent also in Europe a growing health risk, but still not in the same proportion. These are increasingly traded online and dispatched by post. Let's come now to a drug that has called a lot of attention in the recent years, which is cocaine. There is a record production and corresponding expanding markets for cocaine with a market retail value that is estimated at minimum 9.1 billion of euros. This is the second most commonly consumed illicit drugs in the EU. We have around 4 million of Europeans that report having used the drug in the past year, but we need to add to those people, those who have more recently joined and are consuming not only cocaine in this more common version but also crack cocaine and they are worrying signs of an increase in the use of crack cocaine also in Europe. Use is still concentrated in south and west Europe, but the market appears to be spreading, including outside Europe like for instance in the western Balkans. Record production in Latin America has intensified trafficking to the EU mainly to maritime containers where record seizures have been recorded. The presence of European organized crime groups in Latin America is also changing the dynamic and allowing them to manage the supply chain end to end. It is also disrupting the market not only in Europe but in Latin America and there are a lot of changes intervening in the organization of those trafficking groups between the sources and the EU. And also increasingly it seems that Europe is emerging as a transit area for cocaine that is destined to other markets like Middle East and Asia. For Amphetamine, Metamphetamine and MDMA the estimated value is 1.5 billion euro a year. They are produced for domestic production and export. They make up around 5% of the total EU market. More recently we have noticed that not only the market is very well controlled, we have also other organized crime groups that are intervening in the market for instance Mexican cartels who are controlling the entire logistic chain. Finally the new psychoactive substances we discovered 55 new substances one per week on the European market last year. Source countries are China and India. The total of substances that have been detected and that are monitored by the EMCDDA together with Europol and with the support of other EU agencies amount to 731 substances. The NPS continue to represent a very important threat to health with potent synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic opioids and fake benzodiazepines appearing on the market. Those create more at the origin of more health emergencies, acute intoxications and deaths. Dear commissioner, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, the contemporary drug market is increasingly complex, adaptive and dynamic. It is also more global in nature and more interlinked than in the past. In addition, as the commissioner highlighted of the direct impact on health and security, the drug market has also indirect and wide-ranging negative consequences on other important policy areas. It includes violence and community safety, economic development and governance and the environment. Finally, the human and societal costs associated with the drug market remain considerable. The reduction of the harm associated with the drug market should remain a priority. So you will ask me what can we do on the top of what was done and the commissioner explained we made some good progress in the recent five years. We have a lot of work in front of us. The work in that area must remain an absolute priority and this report is a clear wake-up call for policymakers to address the rapidly growing drug market. All message is that important progress has been made but more needs to be done. At the time when a new European commission will take its duties in the coming days, and the EU and the member states are discussing the political priorities and actions for the next European budget 2021-2027, we jointly call together with Europol for an upgrade of priorities and resources proportional to the importance of the emerging threats. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Alexi. I'd now like to give the floor to the Europol Executive Director, Catherine de Boll. Thank you. Always grateful for your help commissioner. Dear commissioner, dear Alexis, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, the availability of drugs in the EU is at an unprecedented high level. Organised crime constitutes the highest and the most diverse risk for our EU citizens. Today we present you the Drug Report 2019. This is the third edition of the joint analysis of Europol and the EMCDDA of the illicit drugs market. Every three years we publish such a joint analysis. The report is important because it's the reference for future strategies to combat drugs production and drugs trafficking. First of all, it focuses on the impact and the consequences of illicit drugs in the EU. And second, it looks into the main drugs markets and it explores also possible responses on the international level to counter the production of drugs and the supply of narcotics. Organised crime constitutes the highest and the most diverse risk for the EU member states. What we see is that the organised crime groups are becoming more complex, highly international and they infiltrate in the legal economy. Polycriminality is a key feature for them. They use more and more violence and they use more and more corruption. Contract killings and other types of violence associated with drugs trafficking is increasing and is expanding in the European Union. High risk crime groups use corruption to infiltrate in the public and in the private sector organisations. The drugs market is the largest criminal market in the European Union. When we look for 2018 to our intelligence at Europe level, we can see that the organised crime groups involved in cocaine trafficking to EU may have profited for at least 40 billion euros, which is nearly one fourth of the 2019 EU budget. Same figures from our intelligence for 2018 for the protection of synthetic drugs in the EU by organised crime groups. And we still believe that these figures are an underestimation. The increasing profits of organised crime threatens as a commissioner set and as Alexis said, our internal security, our economy, the public health and the integrity. Asset tracing has to be reinforced. We do not cease enough and we do not confiscate enough. What can be the answers to counter this threat? We need to support the EU member states, the law enforcement community in the EU member states in cross-border investigations even more. We need to support the resource intensive operations. Therefore, we need to invest in specialised skills, analysis, IT forensic, special tactics, technical support. We developed with the support of the commissioner the concepts of the high value targets and the operational task forces against individuals and organisations constituting the highest security risks. We want to have the big bosses in the organised crime area. We started since late 2018 with this approach. 125 high value targets were selected. 21 operational task forces have been established. 31 investigations have been supported. So far, 400 suspects were arrested, including 51 high value targets and a seizure of a variety of assets. Targeted investigations prove to have a broad security impact beyond specific crime areas. To increase the impact against trafficking and organised crime, we believe that we need to intensify the exchange of operational information even more. We have to increase our focus and our presence at key geographical locations. We need cooperation outside the EU with the source countries. We need a common EU response to criminal use of the new technology and here innovative approaches are key. Encrypted communications, online trade, cryptocurrencies are current now in the use by serious and organised crime groups. More investments in Europe and more investments in the EMCDDA to support all these measures are needed. The European Union and especially the commissioner for justice and home affairs, you have done a lot in the past and we hope that we can continue and even strengthen the approach regarding serious and organised crime in the European Union with a focus on drugs. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Before we move to the Q&A session where you'll be able to ask your technical questions to both agencies, the commissioner will have to leave us for another appointment, but if you'd like to say your goodbyes now and take a picture. Well, I said what I had to say before. As I said, I'm living in two days' time, actually my last institutional activity in Brussels. Once again, I'd like to thank you all, thank you Ben and Alexis and of course the people behind them who are doing the real job. We shall keep being in contact. We don't know what the future is holding for us, but one thing is sure what we have done during the last three years has established a very strong and good friendship and relationship. I wish you all the best. Thank you. Thanks for everything. Let's hear it. Thank you everybody. We'll now move to the question and answer session. Apart from the two directors here, we also have many of our experts in the room from both agencies as well as the Belgian focal point from the Raytox network. So if you would like to start asking your questions and state your name and the media you're representing. Are there any questions for the panel? Inder. Thank you. Inder Bugarin from the Newspaper, Mexico. Five years ago, at least, Europe launched an alert about the presence of Cartel of Sinaloa and the Zetas in Europe. Now this report is telling us that the Mexican cartels are increasing the presence in the business of cocaine and crystal meth. What this report is telling us about the activities of the Mexican cartels here in Europe? Director of Europe, you just said that you need more cooperation with another third countries. Since at least five years ago, you have been negotiating with Mexico an agreement of cooperation. Why is it going on with this agreement? So thank you for your question. First of all, regarding the cartels, I will refer to my colleague who is here and specialized in the whole overview of the market. Regarding the cooperation with South America, we have an operational agreement with Colombia. We will have a working arrangement. This means that we cannot exchange personal data with Brazil. This has been voted on their institutional level. And indeed with Mexico, we need to cooperate more and further. We went to South America a few weeks ago to have a good view on what is going on and to strive for more cooperation with them regarding the issue we have in the European Union. To have more cases together. The focus was on Colombia and Brazil because of the cooperation agreements that are already in place or will be in place in a few weeks. But regarding Mexico, we need to do a bit more. The information we need from a Europe perspective and from a perspective from third countries is key for us. We need this information to have a good view on what is going on in the European Union and what is the impact of the serious and organized crime groups and what are the links with the other continents. We see for instance that there is a clear link between organized crime groups in South America and in the European Union. And we see that the methodologies and the violence and the techniques used by organized crime groups in South America also are used now in the European Union. We are not used to it. We see non-increase of violence in a lot of countries. We see more corruption and we see and it is confirmed direct links between organized crime groups in the Union and in the third countries. But I would like to give the floor to my colleagues regarding the presence of the Mexican cartels in the Union. Okay, thank you for the question. Les Fianna, I'm head of the drugs team at Europol. I mean, Mexican organized crime has been very prevalent for many years, particularly in the cocaine trade. There's a big issue of course with Mexican organized crime in the sense of supply of fentanyl, which is an extremely dangerous drug. It's something we're very concerned about in Europe. Quite recently, we've seen evidence of Mexicans involved in the illicit production of methamphetamine in Europe and this is quite unprecedented. It's quite a wake-up call for us. They have been found in methamphetamine laboratories. They have been linked to an incredibly large seizure of methamphetamine. So, we are of course keeping a close eye, a watching grief. We are gathering as much intelligence as we can to identify those high-value targets who are behind this activity. Thank you very much. Do we have another question? The scale of the problem is obviously enormous. In terms of what the European Union can do as an organization to help you, what would you say the main things are? Is it finding the money and tighter anti-money laundering? What we know is that this isn't working very well. In terms of risk and reward, it seems to be a low-risk, high-reward career option for many people. Are there more radical solutions? Legalization always comes up as a suggestion. Certainly, when you look at the scale of the problem, the resources that go into it. For example, I don't know about other countries, but certainly in the UK, a high proportion of those who are incarcerated are linked to drugs. So, are there more innovative ways of tackling this problem? I will explain to you how we see it from a law enforcement perspective. What is very important is that all the police chiefs of the European Union agree on one fact, that we have a real issue with drugs and that serious and organized crime is becoming more and more important. So, we need to have a plan and we need to have a strategy to tackle it, and we need to find common answers. There we see that there is a real will from the law enforcement community to work together and to share more information. We need to be creative on the European level. We need to look for new answers to the threats because our regular only seizures are not enough. We need to work in depth. So, from a police perspective, we say that we have to exchange even more operational data regarding drugs. When you have an issue in one country, it can have an impact in another country. When you have a modus operandi in one country, it can be relevant for a modus operandi in another country. So, we have to exchange information as much as we can. Secondly, we have to focus really on the key areas on a geographical level. What are the key geographical locations for us and how will we deal with these source countries and how will we try to give the answers. And then the new technologies we have to do with a global organization, a global problem. The innovation and the technology are very much used by the serious and organized crime groups. So, we have to be innovative too, and we really have to invest in more expertise in IT forensic, in specialized skills, and of course this is very resource demanding. So, this means that we need to pool our resources to come with a global answer. That is why we need to work with experts for the whole of the European Union, not only experts in each country. So, we need to have people who can use the new technologies and the new methodologies in the investigations they are dealing with. At the European level, we introduced this approach from high value targets. So, at the national level, you look at the criminals you have to deal with and you make an analysis of the most important ones and you go after them. On the European level, we do the same. We make a list of the big bosses of the organized crime groups and then together with the member states, we make an action plan and we determine who will do what in this action. And we see that this approach is a good one. It's about the investigation but it's also about economical and financial crime investigation. It's about money laundering. It's about corruption. That is why we decided at Europol with a management board in December last year that Europol will create a center related to economic and financial crime. We are now assessing what the member states need, how do they manage their economic and financial crime issues and what is the expectation from a European perspective. So, we are investing in it. It's a high level expertise you need in that one. So, it's also about pooling resources and trying to get the best experts for the benefit of the whole of the European Union. We have a problem and we are determined to try to find answers to the problem. And we have to be creative and innovative to find new ways to tackle the drugs issues we are confronted with at the moment. Yes, thank you for the question. First of all, I would like to say that when you said that we know it is not working very well, I would like to give you much more positive image because there is a very close cooperation between the EU member states and also between the justice and home affairs agencies. We just have both countries and myself are meeting of the directors of justice and home affairs agencies network last week that took place in Europe, Poland and Hague. So, there is a very close cooperation. There is the European strategy on drugs that is delivering results. That's the only regional policy and strategy that has an external evaluation and that is based on evidence. So, is everything perfect? No. Do we have new challenges? Yes. But certainly to say that things do not work very well. It's certainly a bit too dark as an image. But I think it highlights one thing I wanted to say. It's the fact that we do a lot of things and we do a lot of things, especially Europe, at the operational level. We do together with other agencies the strategic and holistic analysis. The problem we have for the moment is not so much about the EU level. It's the fact that over the last 25 years, and you mentioned the UK, there have been a lot of innovative responses to drug use and treatment. The problem is that there were so many good responses that part of the problem that was associated to error in use and the negative health consequences is less visible because it's better addressed. We consider there are more or less 1.2 million of people in treatment today in the EU. This was not the case 25 years ago. In parallel with that, the drugs and the different substances, natural and synthetic, they have disseminated throughout the entire society, but they are less visible, or at least the negative consequences. You don't see them in the streets with people dying from overdose. I think one of the main challenges we are facing and we are actively working on that together with Catherine, the colleagues of Europol, but also the other EU agencies who are also working partly on drugs is the fact that if there is a clear priority at the EU level, in the member states it's not always the case because it's not perceived as important because it lacks visibility. So I think what the report today is showing is that despite the fact that because of those changes in the expression of the problem, the fact that now it is invading the entire society is the first time five years ago we were not mentioning problems of or so important problems related to violence, homicides or corruption. So situation is changing so this is why we say it's a wake-up call. It's not a wake-up call in the sense you do nothing, you should do something. No, it's the fact that we have delivered at European level what we were being asked to do. We have a very close cooperation and this report is the example of many things all agencies in the area of justice and home affairs do together. Now the question is there is a discussion about the priorities for the next seven years and in the meeting of the justice and home affairs ministers last year in December one country mentioned drugs. So the message is look at the evidence. Use make even better use of what the EU and the EU agencies are doing but take into account that the situation has changed and don't look only at terrorism or migration because drugs, as the commission, they are a problem both for health and for security and that's what we are contributing. Next question please. Hello, I am Mark from Associated Press. You've outlined the difficulties with the drug markets. The war on drugs has been going on longer than I've been alive. It's been going on longer than the war in Afghanistan. Are we ever going to reach a situation where we view a solution as legalization, regulation and taxation? You've mentioned the violence with legalization got rid of the violence of the alcohol sales during prohibition in the US. Would you think that would be a solution for this area too with organized crime and taxation? You've mentioned the billions and euros that are being traded in this industry and you highlight the enormously high figures. Would taxation be a good thing in this scenario? Can you please share your thoughts? So from Catherine, thank you very much. So thank you for your question. I think it's a very important question because obviously nobody can imagine that there is such a problem of availability just because it is prohibited. Let's be clear on that. So the fact that it is a global problem and it has many factors, this is what we describe in the report and if there was a magic solution to be found it would already have been used. So the situation is there is production, there are different addictive behaviors and we have not here mentioned gambling and gaming that are also getting traction everywhere in the world including in Europe. So there is something that has to do with the fact that we are human beings and that some people in some circumstances in the specific setting may be willing to use substances or be using or having addictive behaviors. What we see of course we observe with the interest and curiosity what is happening in the US or in other countries like Canada or Uruguay. For the moment it is I think really premature to have any conclusion about it. What we also see is that there are new problems that are created with some policy changes at the state level for instance in the US. What we also see is that there is an increasing number of non-European countries visiting the EU to look at what is the so-called balanced approach in the EU which is combining demand reduction, harm reduction and strong law enforcement action including the example of countries like Portugal who have criminalized drug use. Does it mean it is legalized but it has changed the orientation and the issue or the merit of the policy in Portugal is not only to have decriminalized, they have not done that only. They have done together investment in demand reduction, treatment prevention, harm reduction interventions and strong investment in fighting against the supply. So I think what is important is to understand that we need a more holistic approach understanding and action and there we see differences that are in the other way around. Last year there was an estimate of 72,000 people who died from overdose associated to opioids in particular fentanyls in the US. In Europe there were approximately 9,500. So to say it is a failure or to say that the war on drugs doesn't work first we don't do war on drugs. We have a balanced approach in Europe. We don't have perfect results but there are results and there are achievements and as we had the question last week from a journalist the fact that only last year there were 50 tonnes of cocaine that were seized in Antwerp and another 50 tonnes that had a destination Antwerp that was seized outside Europe it shows that judiciary cooperation works and that's an achievement because we have 28 countries in the EU plus the other outside and of course it's not easy, legal systems are different, the culture are different but it works so what the report shows is that okay there are not magic solutions but there is best practice, there is evidence and today what we need is to continue the effort and to make sure that for the next strategy the EU strategy will be evaluated next year and EMCDDA and Europol they are contributing providing evidence for that evaluation I think what is important is to have everybody on board and today this means in a moment where there are also budgetary constraints we need to make sure that we also give the right level of priority to address not to fight the drugs issue in the EU. Thank you, are there any other questions from the room? Okay we have the room for about another hour and there are some interviews booked in advance so I suggest that we close the press conference now and then we move to the interview stage so thank you very much for coming everybody.