European Police College (CEPOL)

PURPOSE : to establish a European Police College ( "CEPOL") as a body of the European Union.

PROPOSED ACT : Council Decision.

CONTENT : On 22 December 2000, the Council adopted a Decision establishing a European Police College, where the aim and objectives of CEPOL are stated. However, this Decision provided it with neither legal personality nor a permanent seat, and CEPOL encountered a series of difficulties.

This proposal aims at providing CEPOL a better legal framework by giving CEPOL legal personality, a permanent seat, financing from the Community's budget, clear staff rules, and a streamlined governance structure, thus improving Member States' law-enforcement services' ability to face the challenges posed by cross-border crime.

Cooperation in law-enforcement training in the European Union is a means towards achieving an area of freedom, security and justice in the sense of Article 29 of the Treaty on European Union. Training has been stressed in several communications. CEPOL training should increase police knowledge of the instruments at law-enforcement services' disposal in the EU, of the different national systems, of technical terminology in different languages, of ethical and human rights issues, as well as an awareness of belonging to the European Union. It should also aim at increasing the quality of training, by establishing not only common curricula and methodologies, but also a CEPOL certification. This proposal not only foresees giving CEPOL the task of organizing common courses - either centrally or in a decentralized fashion - but puts a stronger emphasis on CEPOL's responsibility for developing these common methodologies and standards, and for evaluating their implementation through a certification mechanism.

The main points of the proposal are as follows:

- CEPOL will have legal personality and be financed from the general budget of the EU;

- CEPOL's objectives remain in line with the original Council Decision creating CEPOL, stating that CEPOL shall complement the actions of the relevant training institutes of the Member States. However, the proposal underlines the need to achieve both quantitative and qualitative improvements in law-enforcement cooperation in the EU and identifies examples of key subjects (such as knowledge of the institutions of the EU, Europol's and Eurojust's structure and functioning), that make up the basis for CEPOL common curricula to be developed in future;

- the proposal extends the tasks performed by CEPOL to developing and providing common standards and course modules to be used by the training institutes of the Member States, as well as to evaluating their implementation. CEPOL should thus be able to ensure the uniform application of both common standards and certain key courses across the EU, so as to ensure that all law-enforcement officials have a similar level of knowledge and competence in certain subject areas considered essential to the best performance of their duties;

- CEPOL's organs: are the Governing Board and the Director. The Governing Board is made up of one representative per Member State and one for the Commission (who becomes a full member), each having one vote.

- CEPOL national units will be set up in the Member States; these will be responsible at national level for implementing the training, teaching and learning tools adopted by the Governing Board, and should

also participate actively in their development and the evaluation of their use.

The seat of CEPOL shall be in Bramshill, United Kingdom.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS :

- Budget lines and headings: From 2005 onwards a new budget heading with two budget lines will be created:

- 18 05 05 01: European Police College – Subsidy to titles 1 & 2;

- 18 05 05 02: European Police College – Subsidy to title 3.

- Overall figures:

- Total allocation for action: EUR 7.5 million for commitment. A maximum of EUR 3 million per annum for 2005 and EUR 4.5 for 2006 is available within the current financial perspectives. From 2007 onwards the allocation of appropriations will depend on the new financial perspectives 2007-2013.

- Period of application: 2005 – 2006. The transitional phase begins in 2005. Although CEPOL is already operational, there will be a transitional phase starting from the entry into force of the Decision until current

staff is fully incorporated to the system of staff regulations and new staff is recruited accordingly, the new Director designated, the headquarters agreement with the host State signed, etc. The present legislative financial statement is calculated on the basis of 6 months for 2005, based on the assumption that the new Council Decision will not be approved and in force before mid-2005. A calculation based on a full year is made for the period from 2006 onward. The operational phase will begin 2006.

- Total operational expenditure up to 2010 : EUR 13,600 million.

- Administrative expenditure: EUR 11,900 million.

- Overall total commitments and payments : EUR 25,500 million.

- Overall human and technical resources : EUR 25,530 million.

- Total staff for operational and administrative work : 22.5.