A meeting of the European Union Project “EU Action against Drugs and Organised Crime (EU ACT): Enhanced Cooperation and Capacity Building to address drug-related Organised Crime along the Heroin Route” representatives with experts from the laboratories conducting drugs examinations was held in Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise within the framework of assessment of current situation of drug laboratories in Ukraine to be carried out by the Project short-term expert.
The main topics for discussion were general information about the Project and the assessment, its agenda and presentations of the labs conducting drugs examinations from different ministries and agencies of Ukraine, which are going to be visited during the week.
The EU Project “EU Action against Drugs and Organized Crime” aims to increase the capacities, effectiveness and efficiency of cooperation between the relevant agencies of countries along the so-called “Heroin Route” responsible for fighting drug trafficking and organized crime.
The event was attended by representatives of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, the State Service of Ukraine on Medicine and Drugs Control, the State Scientific Research Expert Forensic Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Scientific and Research Institute of special equipment and forensic expertise of the Security Service of Ukraine and delegates from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
Oleksandr Ruvin, the Director of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise noted that integration into the European Union is one of Ukraine’s top priorities.
“To implement the European integration strategy of our state, it is important to use the already available opportunities to attract Ukraine to the activities of European institutions,” said Oleksandr Ruvin. – An integral part of the security of the European Union is the issue of control over drug trafficking, counteracting illicit operations with narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors. Cooperation in this area is a promising direction for ensuring security in the pan-European space, which both the European Union and Ukraine are interested in.”
Over the past two decades, the European Union has developed a clear action plan for combating drugs, which is set out in the relevant Strategy 2020. It includes coordination of actions, international cooperation, research and monitoring of changes, and evaluation of results.
Within the framework of this new European Union Project “EU Action against Drugs and Organized Crime”, Ukraine is identified as one of the priority countries for cooperation with the Regional Coordinator working on a constant basis in the country. Thus, the initiator of the activitywas the Regional Project Coordinator Mr. José Manuel Colodrás at the request of the Project Beneficiaries.
The meeting with EU expert was prior agreed by the leadership of KFI and the Project Regional Coordinator. It is KFI which acts as an independent base for conducting expert research in more than 95 expert areas and has 105 years of experience in carrying out specialized types of research. Annually specialists of KFI carry out a large number of examinations of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogs and precursors, solve a number of issues that are not being implemented by any other institution of our state, in particular, the research of equipment of illegal laboratories producing drugs.
The participants discussed urgent issues and labs assessment agenda . In addition, presentations and assessments of the capacity of laboratories of relevant institutions were held, which are important in the light of creating an effective counteraction to drug-related crime.
The participants agreed that an integrated approach is needed to implement an effective system of counteracting drugs and organized crime, which can only be achieved by collective efforts of the international community through the close interaction of state institutions.
