Mid-term assessment of the EU drugs strategy 2013-2020 and final evaluation of the action plan on drugs 2013-2016 : public consultation on the evaluation of the EU drugs strategy: report of results

In accordance with the Better Regulation guidelines a mandatory public consultation was conducted to inform the Mid-Term Assessment of the EU Drugs Strategy 2013-2020 and the final evaluation of the EU Action Plan on Drugs 2013-2016. The consultation was launched on 15 February 2016 on the European Commission website and was open until 31 May 2016. The objective of the public consultation was to gather views from private individuals, non-profit/private organisations, industry and national/regional/local public administrations. The consultation covered all five objectives of the EU Drugs Strategy and corresponding actions of the Action Plan and all the key evaluation criteria: effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU value added. As such, the public consultation was intended to form part of the inputs for the evaluation of the EU Drugs Strategy and Action Plan. The evaluation is being conducted by RAND Europe and Ernst & Young and has two principal aims: 1. To inform the assessment of the degree of implementation of the Drugs Strategy 2013-2020 as well as the Action Plan 2013-2016 in terms of outputs and their impacts. The evaluation should contribute to ensuring that the objectives of the EU Drugs Strategy are achieved by 2020 by highlighting the areas where progress has been achieved and those where progress is not sufficient. 2. To support the Commission's decision on whether to propose a new Action Plan to cover the period 2017-2020 and which changes would be needed compared to the current Action Plan. The evaluation's results are expected to be used by the Commission, the European Parliament, the Council, and Member States in future decision-making regarding EU drug policy and allocation of resources in this area. Moreover, it is expected that members of civil society with an interest in drugs policy will be able to use the results of the evaluation for their future activities. The evaluation covers the first four years of the EU Drugs Strategy 2013-2020 and the full period of the EU Action Plan 2013-2016.