Fourth meeting of the Stability Pact Working Group on Regional Civilian Police Training in South Eastern Europe: Chairmen's Conclusions

The fourth meeting of the Stability Pact Working Group on Regional Civilian Police Training in South Eastern Europe gathered 21 representatives from ministries of the interior, police academies and police services in the region as well as international experts and representatives from the donor community. The meeting was opened by the Director of the Federal Police Academy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Taib Spahic who emphasised the need for increased regional police co-operation in Southeast Europe and underlined the role of the initiative in this regard. Mr. Spahic also expressed his gratitude to the donors of the initiative.

Evaluation of the training activities in Croatia in November/December 2001
The Managing Director of the initiative, Mr. Albert Goedendorp from AEPC, informed the WG about the above mentioned training courses in Croatia. AEPC has in general received very positive feedback from the course participants. Based on the information from AEPC the following decisions and recommendations were taken by the WG:

The general impression was that the target group of the courses were according to the defined criteria. It will however be important to produce the CV's of the participants as early as possible prior to the course.

The methodology of the courses should be continuously and carefully evaluated. For instance could sub-groups be introduced however not to the extent that the aspect of overall interaction is negatively affected. It will also be important to continue to include external experts in the courses to the largest possible degree.

The WG supported the idea to certify the participant at the end of the course.

The concept of national contact persons worked very well. It is however important to emphasise that the contact person must be easy to access particularly during the last weeks prior to the course.

The AEPC will prepare an evaluation report from each course. This report will be distributed to the national contact persons.

The weekly allowance to the participants will be 50 Euro at future courses.

The national contact persons are responsible to look into visa regulations of the host country before their course participants travel to the actual country.

The WG decided to invite the national contact persons to attend the next meetings of the working group.

Training activities during 2002
The WG decided to continue the procedure from Croatia to host two courses per country before moving to the next one.

The WG recommended that that the date and location for the first four courses in 2002 should be as follows:

Trafficking in drugs 8-12. April The Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina
Police management 15-19. April Republika Srpska (To be confirmed)

The representative of UNMIBH offered to support the parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the preparation and implementation of the two courses.

Police ethics and Policing in a multicultural society should take place in Bulgaria during the second half of June and the second half of September.

The time and location of the last two training courses in 2002, Trafficking in small arms and light weapons and Financial crime and money laundering will be decided as soon as possible.

Moldova joins the initiative
Based on a request from the Stability Pact Co-ordinator of Moldova, the WG decided to include Moldova in the initiative. The Letter of intent will be forwarded to Moldova in the near future and Moldavian participants should therefore be able to attend the training courses in April.

Next meeting of the Working Group
The WG will meet next time in Slovenia or Montenegro probably in September/October.