WRITTEN QUESTION E-3524/00

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL), Bob van den Bos (ELDR), Theodorus Bouwman (Verts/ALE), Ria Oomen-Ruijten (PPE-DE) and Toine Manders (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 November 2000)

Subject: Shortage of manpower for cross-border policing in and around the Dutch province of South Limbourg

1. Is the Commission aware of the Dutch government's proposal to redistribute the manpower of the police forces over the 25 Dutch police regions, whereby the number of residents of non-Western immigrant origin and the degree of urbanisation will play a much greater role in determining how police strength is allocated, with the result that the Limbourg South regional constabulary risks losing 370 officers?

2. Is the Commission aware that the Dutch province of South Limbourg which includes the cities of Maastricht and Heerlen is almost entirely surrounded by Belgian and German territory containing the cities of Aachen, Liège and Hasselt, which has an impact on the way in which crime is organised, so that a case can be made for not simply using domestic criteria for allocating police strength?

3. Can the Commission confirm that the Limbourg-South constabulary is increasingly obliged to apprehend or monitor cross-border drug transports and that, because of the many efforts to produce the drug XTC in this frontier region, this means a relatively high workload with, in addition, many requests from the German and Belgian police for help in fighting cross-border crime?

4. Can the Commission indicate whether, in its opinion, the Dutch initiative will result in future in a substantially lower police presence in this densely populated frontier region than if the Dutch province of South Limbourg, the Belgian provinces of Limbourg and Liège and the neighbouring administrative districts (Kreise) of the German Land of North Rhine-Westphalia were jointly assessed on the basis of a single allocation system, whether Dutch, Belgian or German?

5. Does the Commission feel that consultations with the national, regional and local authorities responsible for police matters would be a way of developing an objective standard for the requisite level of policing in this and other frontier regions within the European Union?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(17 January 2001)

1. The Dutch authorities have not officially informed the Commission on this proposal. As the Honourable Members know the allocation of police forces, the distribution of the budget and the indicators used to decide on the distribution are the responsibility of the Member States.

2. It is up to the governments of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands to determine how to fight cross-border criminality in these regions. In this context the Commission would like to recall that Article 29 of the Treaty on European Union calls for closer co-operation between Member States' police and customs services to improve the fight against crime.

3. The Commission is aware that cross-border drug trafficking is a problem in this border region. It would therefore be important for the Member States concerned to assure an effective co-operation also in this area. In the Netherlands, in the police region of south-east Brabant, a special multidisciplinary unit (Synthetic Drugs Unit) has been established to address the subject of synthetic drugs (e.g. ecstasy).

4. The Commission does not dispose of information which would enable it to answer this question.

5. The Commission is of the opinion that neighbouring Member States should co-operate closely on police matters, in particular in border regions. One working example that can be mentioned in this respect is the recent co-operation between the police and customs services of Germany and France in the French-German border region between Luxembourg and Switzerland. The Commission would also like to draw the attention to the Community programme for police and customs co-operation (OISIN) which provides financial support to concrete co-operation projects between Member States, and thereby can contribute to a structural improvement of police co-operation in border areas throughout the Union.