The European External Action Service (EEAS) recommends extending the EUBAM Rafah and EUPOL COPPS Missions until 30 June 2023.
In the Strategic Mission Reviews dated 1 March for the Political and Security Committee (PSC), obtained by EUROPE, the EEAS proposes to extend the EUBAM Rafah mandate for 2 years, with a budget for the period 1 July 2021-30 June 2022 of two to three million euros.
According to the European diplomatic service, the Mission should maintain its readiness to redeploy to the Rafah crossing point once the political and security conditions allow, while recognising that this “remains unlikely in the short to medium term”.
It also recommends that the Mission continue its efforts under the Palestinian Authority Preparedness Project (PAPP), with a focus on ensuring sustainability and local ownership of the progress achieved through the Mission’s direct and indirect support to the Palestinian border management and security.
While this Mission has been on stand-by since 2007, with limited autonomous capacity, the EEAS believes that it has, among other things, achieved tangible results by strengthening the capacity of the Palestinian Border Agency in Jericho under the PAPP.
The diplomatic service is also seeking a two-year extension of EUPOL COPPS mandate “in its current form”, in order to consolidate the Mission’s efforts with the focus on pursuing strategic reforms within the security and criminal justice sectors, using the Mission’s unique possibility to address cross-cutting issues related to both sectors and improving donor coordination.
It recommends to “continue to increase the operational added-value” of the Mission by pursuing the gradual shift of the its engagement in the security and justice sectors towards more strategic support (while ensuring sustainability and local ownership of the results already achieved) and by a phased evolution of the Mission’s activities towards mentoring in certain mandated areas of engagement.
“EUPOL COPPS plays a pivotal role in the Palestinian security and justice sectors reform. Since the Mission’s establishment in 2005, its efforts have had a considerable impact, in particular on the Palestinian Civilian Police”, the EEAS believes. However, it acknowledged that the Palestinian Authority’s suspension of its security cooperation with the Israeli authorities had “serious consequences” on the implementation of the Mission’s mandate to facilitate cooperation between the Palestinian civil police and prosecution services and their Israeli counterparts, which is no longer possible.
The EEAS recommends a budget of €12-14 million for the period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.
Member State ambassadors to the PSC will discuss these strategic revisions on Thursday 4 March. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)