INFORMAL HEALTH COUNCIL : DESIGNER DRUGS: WARSAW PROMOTES ITS LEGISLATION.

At the initiative of the Polish EU Presidency, the 27 health ministers held their first-ever debate on the dangers of designer drugs at an informal Council, on 5-6 July in Sopot, Poland. Warsaw made it clear that it intends to promote at European level its very restrictive national drug legislation.

The country can boast of being among Europe's leaders in this field. Last October, it adopted a law - judged very effective by experts - prohibiting the production and distribution of all psychotropic or mind-altering drugs, with violations fined from 5,000 to 250,000. These so-called designer drugs are stimulants with a variety of chemical compositions, sold legally before promulgation of the new law in specialised shops and on the internet under misleading names.

According to Polish Health Minister Ewa Kopacz, several fellow ministers expressed an interest in legislation inspired by the Polish example (among them Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Romania and Cyprus), which would prohibit certain of these drugs on a preventive basis. "The biggest problem is the distribution of designer drugs over the internet," she said at a press conference after the meeting. "We would like to take action at European level to combat this channel of distribution." Deputy Health Minister Adam Fronczak added that "banning these substances in just one member state makes no sense. We have to work on adopting a law applying to the Union as a whole." The Polish authorities also announced that Prime Minister Donald Tusk had written a letter on this subject to Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso last October. The Commission, under the authority of Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, is drafting a report that is expected to be made public in the coming weeks.

The fight against designer drugs is the Polish Presidency's top priority in the area of home affairs. The informal Justice and Home Affairs Council, on 18-19 July in Sopot, will provide an opportunity for further discussion of this issue and will kick off work to draft a European pact on designer drugs.

HEALTH AND CHILDREN

Following on from the ministers' debates at this session, conclusions are set to be adopted at the formal Social Affairs Council, on 2 December, on: 1. preventing communication disorders in children (Minister Kopacz announced unanimity on this subject at the informal Council; the aim is to set up reference centres at national or regional level for detection and early treatment of these disorders, based on European standards); 2. reducing inequalities between member states by acting on health determinants (promotion of healthy diet, physical activity and combating obesity); and 3. preventing respiratory disorders in children (preventing and controlling allergies and asthma).

E.coli

In the wake of the E.coli epidemic, European policy should aim to be more diligent on surveillance of imported products. In the wings of the Council, the head of Poland's health authority, Przemyslaw Bilinski, suggested controls on food products at the source, ie at the place of production. Controls are effected today only on samples taken at the EU's borders and not on all imported products. For Jaroslaw Pietras, Polish director of the Council's Secretariat-General, "it is still too soon to say whether there will be any proposals in this area". However, if such legislation is considered in the future, the question will be to determine who will pay for the additional controls. According to a member of the Polish representation in the Council in charge of such issues, "it is clear that the cost would fall on producers and consequently be passed on to consumers".