Second meeting of the Stability Pact Working Group on Regional Civilian Police Training in Southeast Europe: Chairmen's Summary

The second meeting of the working group on regional civilian police training in Southeast Europe gathered 20 representatives from ministries of interiors, police academies and police services in the region, as well as international experts and representatives from the donor community. The meeting was opened by Ambassador Prvoslav Davinic, National Co-ordinator for Working Table III, who emphasised the important role of the initiative as a regional capacity and network building mechanism. He also expressed appreciation that the Yugoslav government could host the meeting.

After briefly repeating the conclusions from the first meeting of the working group in Zagreb on 4 April, the morning session dealt with the following issues regarding future training activities: the topics of the training courses, the number of training courses, the number of countries and students at the courses, the time and locations of the first training course and how the language diversities should be dealt with. The discussion was initiated by a presentation of Mr. Albert Goedendorp, the representatives of the Association of European Police Colleges (AEPC). Mr Goedendorp briefly presented the ENFOPOL 118 programme and outlined the possible role of the AEPC as a training provider for the initiative.

The Croatian representative offered the first training course to be held at the police training centre in Valbandon near Pula in Croatia.

The Slovenian representative informed about the police management module that has been developed at the Slovenian Police College and offered this training module for future training activities. Furthermore the Hungarian representative briefly informed about the International Police Training Centre in Budapest, and presented an offer to conduct future training courses at this venue.

Concerning future funding of the initiative, the co-chair reported from a meeting in Brussels on 14 May with representatives from the European Commission where this issue was dealt with. The conclusions from this meeting indicate that the working group should in the future have a close contact with the Commission in this regard. However, concerning training activities from 2002 and onwards the working group should aim for the Stability Pact regional conference in Bucharest on 25 October 2001. The Norwegian government is currently funding the activities of the working group and has offered to fund the training activities for 2001. The working group stressed the importance of presenting the selected training modules as projects for the meeting in Bucharest.

The working group also discussed the possible need for identifying national contact persons responsible for supporting the training courses.

The next meeting of the working group should take place in the beginning of September possibly in Sofia.

With regards to future strategies and objectives of the training initiative, the working group concluded on the following issues:

1. Objectives of the training

The overall objective of the initiative is to introduce best practices of policing, by exchange of knowledge and experience regarding subject relevant to the target group of police officers, and to apply European standards in the field of policing.

Furthermore, to initiate broad regional police co-operation and networking by bringing participants from the different countries in the region together. Networks should also be created between the donor countries and the recipient countries in order to increase the possibility of functional relationships.

Training courses will be the method of realising the initiative.

2. Subjects for the training

The implementation of the courses will be divided into three terms: short term, mid term and long term.

In the short term - in 2001 - the following will be topics of the training courses:
- illegal immigration
- trafficking in human beings

In the mid term - from 2002 and onwards - the following will be topics of the training courses:
- trafficking in drugs
- police management
- police ethics
- financial crime and money laundering
- policing in multicultural communities

In the long term - from 2003 and onwards - the following will be topics of the training courses:
- smuggling of stolen vehicles
- training methods
- dealing with extreme phenomenon
- maintaining public order
- forging of documents
- methods of technical crime investigation

3. The target group of the training

The participants of the training should be police officers on decision making level.

The number of participants on each training course should be 20 to 30.

4. The providers of the training

The Working Group recommends that the training will be provided in the concept of the Association of European Police Colleges in co-operation with the Central European Police Academy and the Nordic Baltic Police Academy.

5. Training methodology

The training will be presented in an interactive way. This will require an active attitude from the participants.

6. Training venues

The courses will be implemented in the region according to a roaming concept. The first course should take place in Croatia.

7. Language

The initiative should try to limit the number of languages during the implementation of the courses.