In September 2015, the Council of the European Union adopted Council conclusions on the implementation of minimum quality standards in drug demand reduction in the EU. This innovative initiative lists 16 standards that represent a minimum benchmark of quality for interventions in: prevention, risk and harm reduction, treatment, social integration and rehabilitation. Although nonbinding for national governments, this document represents the political will of EU countries to address demand reduction interventions through an evidence-based perspective.

One of the most important aims of the CSFD and especially its Working Group on Minimum Quality Standards in Drug Policy in the following years is to increase the quality of services in the area of drug demand reduction in the EU Member States by an active involvement of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). This will be achieved by promoting the implementation of minimum quality standards in EU Member States (advocacy) and improving knowledge and skills among CSOs on how to implement minimum quality standards on the national level (training). A comprehensive advocacy plan is prepared to support the promotion and implementation of the minimum quality standards in EU Member States and more specifically the guidelines and recommendations, which were developed and published in the previous CSFD project (2017-2019). The advocacy plan wants to stipulate all relevant advocacy actions and will address several key stakeholders and target groups, including policy and decision makers at the national and European level, and service providers and CSOs at the national level.

The advocacy plan will be implemented in the period of 2020-2022 and includes specific activities, such as: (1) establishment of advocacy coalitions or alliances at national, regional or local level; (2) policy briefings with relevant stakeholders at EU, national, regional or local level (policy and decision makers); (3) media activities to inform different relevant stakeholders and target groups on existence and importance of minimum quality standards, assessment of implementation in reality and available training (which will be developed within this project as well); (4) promotion activities during relevant European conferences in the field of drug demand reduction (virtually or in-person depending on the COVID-19 situation) (e.g. European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR) conference 2021, European Harm Reduction Conference (EHRC) 2021) through active participation and presentations; and (5) preparation of a thematic paper on minimum quality standards, focusing on the specific needs of marginalised (vulnerable) groups and gender-related issues which are not adequately addressed in the present Council Conclusions document (future considerations regarding standards).