WRITTEN QUESTION E-3219/01

by Pere Esteve (ELDR) to the Commission

(22 November 2001)

Subject: Establishment of a European Civilian Peace Corps

In view of the major escalation of violence which is taking place in the world and the need to improve non-military crisis-management tools, would the Commission answer the following questions:

1. Will it say why, in its recent Communication of 11 April 2001 on conflict prevention(1), it ignored the proposal which Parliament has repeatedly put forward (beginning

with the resolution it adopted on 17 May 1995 on the functioning of the Treaty on European Union with a view to the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference(2)) concerning the establishment of a European Civilian Peace Corps with responsibility for peace-keeping duties?

2. What view does the Commission take of this proposal which Parliament has put forward in a series of documents? These comprise:

- the proposal for a recommendation to the Council by Mr Spencer and 38 other Members concerning the establishment of a European Civilian Peace Corps (B4-0791/98),

- the report of 28 January 1999 by Mr Per Gahrton on a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the Council on the establishment of a European Civil Peace Corps (A4-0047/1999),

- the motion for a resolution by Mr Salvador Garriga on the setting up of a European Civilian Peace Corps (B5-0361/1999),

- the final report of 21 November 2000 by Mrs Catherine Lalumière on the establishment of a common European security and defence policy after Cologne and Helsinki (A5-0339/2000),

- the report drawn up by Mr Joost Lagendijk and adopted in committee on 6 November 2001 concerning the Commission Communication on conflict prevention(3).

3. Has the Commission carried out any studies into the feasibility of a European Civilian Peace Corps?

4. Is it intending to take any real action on the matter?

(1) COM(2001) 211 final.

(2) OJ C 151, 19.6.1995, p. 56.

(3) COM(2001) 211.

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(18 January 2002)

Improving the personnel capacity of the Union to address situations of conflict or potential conflict is one of the key challenges in building a credible and effective external policy. Indeed, the European Council at Feira (19 and 20 June 2000) decided that the Union should reinforce its external action through the development of a civilian crisis management capability and identified priority areas for the elaboration of concrete personnel targets in civilian aspects of crisis management, where work should be carried forward.

The Commission Communication on conflict Prevention(1), emphasised the need to enhance the Union's external action in the field of peaceful resolution of conflicts and effective crisis management. One important aspect of this work is to develop personnel capacities and the ability to deploy civilian Union experts to peace missions. First steps have been taken towards the building-up of pools of Union civilian personnel for peace missions and are developed in close co-ordination with Member States and the Council.

The Parliament's recomendations on a European Civil Peace Corps have considerable potential and might be developed in the future. However, a number of problems remain, which relate to the delicate issues of overall control and guidance and to the oversight of personnel rosters/databases. Member States should rightly retain the prerogative of nominating personnel to peace missions. The Commission has therefore chosen to adopt a pragmatic and decentralised approach, in close co-operation with the Council secretariat and Member States, to build up personnel capacity to enable the Union to effectively carry out its tasks in conflict prevention and crisis management.

The Commission itself has a long experience in this area. The Commission has over the past years dispatched a large number of individual experts in its external assistance programmes, covering a wide array of areas ranging from general technical assistance to human rights and election observation: to projects for democracy or the rule of law in Rwanda, projects aiming at the strengthening of the judiciary in Colombia, human rights training programmes for police forces in Algeria or South Africa, with many of these activities carried out by Union non-governmental organisation

(NGO) personnel. The Union has also developed a coherent policy on election observation, with the regular deployment through the Commission, in co-operation with Member States, of Union election observation teams in third countries.

The Commission is also responding through new initiatives to a number of challenges the Union is facing. The Union must react more quickly in crisis situations and must deploy appropriate personnel in sufficient numbers.

This is why the Commission is currently engaged in further developing the Rapid Reaction Mechanism (RRM), which enables it to respond in a rapid, efficient and flexible manner to situations of urgency or crisis or to the emergence of crisis. The RRM entitles the Commission to conclude framework agreements with relevant government agencies, international organisations and NGOs to carry out rapid interventions in crisis management. The Commission is right now preparing an inventory of personnel categories and first framework agreements for the provision of national experts for civilian aspects of crisis management to be concluded with Member States. A wide array of personnel categories are included, such as personnel for assessment teams, for monitoring tasks (general/political-security/human rights/elections), experts on security for populations (trauma counselling, Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR), demining, environmental specialists, food security), rehabilitation, education, rule of law, civilian administration, experts in civil society development. First actions under the RRM have already been taken for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Central Africa.

This is also why the Commission has launched a training project to build up training and personnel capacity in the Union, covering both categories of public employees and NGO personnel and giving particular emphasis to the areas of strengthening the rule of law and civilian administration. A network of national bodies responsible for training of civilian personnel is being created, with the aim of promoting training co-operation and developing proposals for common training modules for the Union and future administration of pilot training courses. A core group of interested training institutions met in Brussels on 20 November 2001 to launch the project and set a calendar for the elaboration of first proposals to be presented by mid-2002.

(1) COM(2001) 211 final.