First Meeting of the Working Group on Regional Civilian Police Training in Southeast Europe: Chairmen's Summary

The first meeting of the working group on regional civilian police training in Southeast Europe gathered 18 participants representing ministries of interiors, police academies and police forces of the countries in the region, the donor community as well as international experts. The meeting was held in Zagreb on April 4, 2001 and was co-chaired by Mr. Zlatko Miletic from the RC Ministry of the Interior and Mr. Tor Tanke Holm from the Norwegian Police Directorate. Mr. Dragutin Cestar, the Head of Criminal Police Directorate of the RC Ministry of the Interior, made an opening statement on behalf of the host country.

At the beginning Mr.Holm presented the basic objectives of the initiative.

The morning discussions focused on the content of the training. Many participants pointed out that the level of general police training in the region was acceptable while there is a extensive need for specialised training. In the light of it there is a strong need for the region to identify its own priorities. The importance of concentrating on mutual problems and interests while identifying the training needs was underlined.

Regarding the fact that the organised crime is the major issue for the police forces in the region, it is important that new initiatives are coordinated within the Stability Pact where the SPOC and SPAI should serve as the overall framework. By introducing this framework, the new training initiatives could more easily be identified and the problems of duplication could be reduced. The suggestion of letting one or two representatives from the working group attend meetings in the SPOC's Advisory Contact Group should be elaborated on.

The participants repeatedly pointed out certain areas for training activities and the need to decide which one to choose among them. The importance of a complex approach in planning future training activities was underlined. The objective of the initiative should neither be too wide nor to narrow. The priorities should not indicate that one topic is more important than the other. However, there is a need to decide which topics should be presented first.

During the meeting, the participants singled out some topics which they considered important to be dealt with in the course of the training. These topics are; combat against illegal migrations, trafficking in human beings, smuggling of drugs, smuggling of stolen vehicles, organized crime, forging of documents and money, training of border police, training of police working with national minorities, relationship of police and media, police management, role of police and its place in society, training of management staff and trainers (train the trainers), riots combat and terrorism combat.

Also underlined was the importance of the improvement of the co-ordination with the Schengen countries where the standardization of information will play an important role.

The representative from the Association of European Police Colleges (AEPC) briefly introduced the ENFOPOL 118 project. This project has since 1999 addressed the EU candidate member states in the framework of the PHARE and CARE programmes of the European Commission. The objective of this project is, among others, to provide training assistance in achieving common European standards in the fields of policing in democracies, the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities. The AEPC has developed training models in seventeen areas of police action that serve as a framework for future regional training in Southeast Europe. The multilateral approach where students from three countries attend each training model, has turned out to be very successful.

The Working Group endorsed the following proposals:

It was also pointed out that the activities related to the preparation of the training course should start as soon as possible.