First Working Group meeting of Ukrainian Drugs Forensic Institutions

The First Working Group (WG) meeting of Ukrainian Drugs Forensic Institutions was organised in the premises of the Ministry of Justice Lab (Kyiv Forensic Institute) in Kiev on 29th and 30th of January 2019 and was chaired by Minitry of Justice and sponsored by EU-ACT that acted as Secretary of the newly established WG.

This meeting was facilitated by two Experts from European Union (EU) Member States (MS) with experience in standardisation and coordination of labs in EU and attended by representatives from all interested institutions/agencies.

On 27th November 2018 (after several workshops with key technical representatives of all relevant forensic laboratory services), a High-Level Meeting took place chaired by the Deputy Minister of Justice and with the participation of representatives of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Health, responsible officials from Security Service, State Fiscal Service, National Police and Centre for Mental Health and Monitoring of Drugs and Alcohol of Ukraine, as well as the leadership of all the forensic institutions concerned.

During this meeting a Joint Declaration was produced which contains the main following points:

• Immediate setting up of a Working Group (WG) that would follow the implementation of a Road Map elaborated and approved by all the institutions that includes the most relevant issues that according to the experts must be tackled in the short, medium and long terms.
• WG would consist of relevant experts from each institution who will report to relevant Ministries and Institutions on the progress done in relation to the Road Map every time the WG meets;
• WG would meet one time per quarter, every year;
• First meeting of WG would be chaired by Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and supported by EU-ACT.