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Towards a European Police Force: 12 March 2001

12 March 2001

A seminar entitled ‘Police for Peacebuilding: what role for the EU?’, took place in Paris on 12 March 2001 (Maartje Rutten). The aim of the seminar was to look at the process of establishing the EU pool of 5,000 police officers. The discussions centred on lessons learned from previous involvement of police in crisis management operations, the specific challenges for the EU in assembling police and ideas for enhancing implementation of the EU plans in this field. Participants comprised representatives from the EU Committee for Civil Aspects of Crisis Management, the Situation Centre/Crisis Cell at the Secretariat General at the EU Council of Ministers, the EU Military Staff, Europol, UN, OSCE, WEU, Gendarmerie and Carabinieri, in addition to many academics. At this first-ever Institute seminar on police, there was general agreement on the fact that EU member states seem committed to creating this EU police pool and that reasonable progress has already been achieved. There are, however, still important obstacles to be overcome, such as finding the resources to obtain this pool, acquiring rapid deployability capability for police, the definition of a police planning process and the availability problem as the goal of 5,000 police officers by 2003, when including rotation will mean some 10/12,000 police officers. In order to proceed with implementing the plans set on police, it was recommended, among others, to clarify EU decisionmaking on this, that is the respective roles of the PSC, Committee for Civil Aspects of Crisis Management, member states and to have police representatives participate in decisionmaking and any aspect of ESDP for that matter. Other suggestions included, division of labour, the creation of a European police academy and the need to develop a clear vision of the role of EU police. Session I: Lessons from previous crises Chair: Halvor Hartz (former Chief UN CIVPOL Unit, the Norwegian Police, Oslo) Introduction: Eric Chevallier (Counsellor to the former Representative to the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo)

Respondents:
Barrie Meyers (OSCE Police Advisor, REACT Unit, Vienna)
Renata Dwan (Leader of Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Project, SIPRI, Stockholm)

Session II: Challenges in establishing an EU Police Force
Chair: Graham Paul (MFA, Paris/EU Committee for Civil Aspects of Crisis Management)
Introduction: Michael Matthiessen (Head of Task Force Situation Centre/Crisis Cell, EU Policy Unit, Brussels)
Wyn Rees (Centre for European Politics and Institutions, University of Leicester)
Pietro Pistolese (WEU MAPE Main HQ, Brussels)

Session III: Follow-up actions for the EU Chair: Eckhard Lübkemeier (MFA, Berlin/EU Committee for Civil Aspects of Crisis Management)
Introduction: Eckhard Lübkemeier (MFA, Berlin/EU Committee for Civil Aspects of Crisis Management)
Respondents: Pedro A. Serrano de Haro (Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU, Brussels)
Carl Hallergård (Situation Centre/Crisis Cell, EU Policy Unit, Brussels)
Philip Wilkinson (Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College, London)