EUDA - new European Union Agency for Drugs presented in Lisbon

The inauguration ceremony of the EUDA (European Union Agency for Drugs) took place on 3 July.

The event took place in Lisbon, in the premises that were once home to the EMCDDA, now defunct.

This transformation represents a fundamental step in strengthening the European Union's capacity to tackle the challenges that illicit psychoactive substances bring to health and safety. Thus, the EUDA now has a broader and more proactive mandate to anticipate, alert, respond and learn - the four categories of services envisaged.

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, the Secretary of State for Health, Ana Povo, the chairman of the EUDA Board of Directors, Franz Pietsch, and the EUDA's executive director, Alexis Goosdeel, gave speeches and answered journalists' questions on a common theme: Europe needs to act, based on scientific evidence, on a problem that is always evolving.

Ana Sofia Santos, coordinator of the International Relations and Cooperation Office at ICAD, I.P. and alternate member of the EUDA Board of Directors, represented ICAD, I.P. at the ceremony.