Morocco joins Council of Europe's group for fighting drugs

Morocco joins Council of Europe’s group for fighting drugs

July 26, 2011 (MAP)

Morocco has become a new member of the Council of Europe’s Pompidou Group for the fight against drugs, soaring the organ’s member States to 36, announced on Monday the organization.

The entry of Morocco, since 1st July 2011, into the Pompidou Group reflects the country’s progressive integration into the different structures of the Council of Europe, as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has already granted the Kingdom the “Partner for Democracy” status on June.

Morocco, first non-European country to join the Strasburg-based Group, subsequently took part, on 27-28 November 2006, for the first time as an observer country in the ministerial conference of the Pompidou Group, said a statement of the organization.

Morocco asked the Pompidou Group to accept its application for membership on 22 February 2010, at the seminar on prospects for co-operation between the Kingdom and the Council of Europe, while its collaboration with the group begun in 1999, said the same source.

The Pompidou Group, an organ within the Council of Europe for the fight against drug abuse and illicit trafficking in drugs, started its activities in the Mediterranean Region in Malta in 1999 by holding a conference on “co-operation in the Mediterranean region on drug use: setting-up networks in the Mediterranean region”.

The Pompidou Group’s core mission is to contribute to the development of multidisciplinary, innovative, effective and evidence-based drug policies in its member states.

It seeks to link Policy, Practice and Science and focuses especially on the realities of local implementation of drug programmes.

Picture credit: middle-east-online.com