WRITTEN QUESTION E-2312/00

by Marco Cappato (TDI) to the Council

(11 July 2000)

Subject: European Police Chiefs' operational Task Force

The scoreboard drawn up by the Commission and added to by the French presidency envisages the creation of a European Police Chiefs operational Task Force' aimed at developing operational cooperation between police forces and the training of people carrying out public security duties at EU level. It would appear that the Council has launched discussions on the basis of a document submitted by the United Kingdom, whilst the Commission envisages a Council decision based on a Commission proposal or the initiative of a Member State. In its scoreboard the French presidency talks about a structure linking the authorities responsible for European police forces responsible for discussing and devising strategic guidelines, and announces a second meeting for 14/15 September 2000, since apparently an initial meeting was held in April.

Can the Council answer the following questions:

- how exactly did this structure come into being and what are its actual aims;

- what is the legal basis for its institutionalisation;

- how many and what kind of meetings has it held so far;

- what are the rules governing its operation and organisation;

- who has taken part or is taking part in the meetings;

- does it have a secretariat;

- what working languages are used;

- what were or will be the items on the agenda;

- are there any minutes of the meetings held so far and it is planned to compile minutes for the future meetings;

- who has access to them;

- what conclusions or decisions have been adopted;

- what is the organisation's future programme of work;

- what relationship does it have with Europol, Eurojust, Loaf, Interpol and national police forces?

Reply

(10 November 2000)

1. The Tampere European Council on 15 and 16 October 1999 called in its resolution No 44 for the establishment of a European Police Chiefs' operational Task Force to exchange, in cooperation with Europol, experience, best practices and information on current trends in cross-border crime and contribute to the planning of operative actions.

2. The Council would inform the Honourable Member that in accordance with that objective, the Presidency organised an informal meeting of European Chief Police Officers in Lisbon on 7/8 April 2000 with the participation of the European Commission, the Council General Secretariat and Europol in order to hold joint discussions in the context of the Tampere recommendation. Thirteen of the fifteen Member States were represented at that meeting, for which interpretation was provided into and out of English, French and Portuguese. The Presidency reported on the outcome of the discussions at the first informal meeting of European Chief Police Officers when they met in the Council (Justice and Home Affairs) on 29 May 2000.

3. The French Presidency organised the second meeting of Chief Police Officers of the States of the European Union on 14 and 15 September 2000 in Paris. Fourteen of the fifteen Member States were represented. Interpretation was available in all of the official Community languages.

The discussions focused on three topics: introduction of the Euro, combating illegal immigration networks and lower case Community policing. There will be an official Council document containing the Presidency conclusions, and this will be submitted to the Council (Justice and Home Affairs) for information.

4. At the first meeting of the operational Task Force the participants agreed, inter alia, that it was necessary:

(a) to create a flexible, evolving and initially informal structure which will serve as a forum for discussion and contributions by the highest officers of the police forces of the European Union and Europol, with the participation of the European Commission and the Council General Secretariat so that an area of freedom, security and justice can be established in the field of police cooperation.

(b) to establish the principle of one meeting per Presidency under the responsibility of the Member State holding the Presidency, without ruling out the possibility of convening extraordinary meetings in future on specific topics which are of common concern. Such meetings could be preceded by meetings of experts, if appropriate.

(c) to ensure that this informal forum does not cause confusion with regard to the institutionalised working parties at the level of the Council of the European Union and does not overlap with them or with the action carried out by Europol under its Convention.

(d) to ensure this Task Force contributes to the elaboration of common strategies to strengthen police cooperation, in particular in the context of the fight against cross-border organised crime in fields which initially coincide with those mentioned in Tampere, i.e. trafficking in drugs and human beings, and terrorism.

(e) to ensure that the analyses and contributions made by the operational Task Force initially also aim at defining strategies and joint operational actions in the field of maintaining public order whenever events occur which are likely to threaten it.

(f) for the sake of flexibility, that the composition of the operational Task Force takes account of the organisational diversity and specific responsibilities of the police institutions of the Member States.

(g) given its evolving character, to carry out an assessment of the functioning of the operational Task Force in December 2001 within the framework of the general assessment of progress in implementing the Tampere conclusions.

The Presidency takes note of the wish to include the Chief Police Officers of the applicant countries in Task Force meetings in due course.