CGPCS Strategy Meeting

On 28 January 2014, the EUISS organised and hosted the Strategy Meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) as part of its overall support to the EU Chairmanship of the CGPCS in 2014. More than 80 high-level representatives from different countries and organisations came to Paris in order to discuss the nature of future engagements within the framework of the CGPCS. Under the presidency of EEAS Deputy Secretary-General Maciej Popowski, the Contact Group decided to increase its focus on regional maritime capacity-building – including greater support to coast guards, maritime police, the legal and judicial sectors in Somalia and in the western Indian Ocean; to strengthen its engagement with industry; to step up its emphasis on prevention; and to enhance its efforts in tracing the financial flows which stem from piracy and tracking down piracy kingpins. In addition to the organisation of this event, the EUISS, working closely with the EEAS, will conduct a ‘Lessons Learned Study’ on the experience of the Contact Group as a multilateral ad hoc framework. This study is part of a broader Lessons Learnt Project (LLP) which brings together the EUISS, the International Peace Institute, the Counter-Piracy Governance Project at Cardiff University, and Oceans Beyond Piracy. To watch an interview with Maciej Popowski about the CGPCS, please click here.