Brussels, 04/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Following the political agreement reached in the Justice/Home Affairs Council, during its end of November session, over the creation of a European Police College, the EU Council took the decision (published in the Official Journal L 336) covering the creation of this College, as of 1 January 2001. The decision specifies that the European Police College (CEPOL) consists firstly of a network of national institutions for the training of high ranking heads of the police services in the existing Member States of the EU countries, "without excluding the creation of a permanent institution at a future stage". The Directors of these institutes for the administrative council of CEPOL, and the representatives of the EU Council Secretariat General, the Commission and EURPOL are invited to take part in its meetings as observers. The administrative council decides upon an on-going annual training programme and adopts, if need be, additional programmes and initiatives, and draws-up an annual activity report that is passed on, for information, to the European Parliament and the Commission. The CEPOL, which will examine on a case by case basis the possibility of opening up to civil servants from the institutions and bodies of the EU, is open to police training institutes from the candidate countries with which the EU is carrying out accession negotiations, as well as with those of Norway and Iceland, notes the decision.
The aims and missions of the College will, in particular, be to: - deepen the understanding of the police systems of other Member States, EUROPOL and cross border cooperation in the EU, - improve the understanding of the international cooperation instruments in the fight against organised crime, - ensure a suitable training as to the respect for democratic guarantees, in particular of the right to defence.
Last November, the European Parliament had, by adopting a report by the CSU member Bernd Posselt, approved by slightly modifying the initiative to create such a College. Mr Posselt, who had recalled that the Parliament had proposed as of April 1998 the creation of such a "European Academy for internal security", had hoped that the College transform itself as quickly as possible into a body with a fixed seat, within the border area between the EU and the accession candidate countries ("if possible in the eastern part of Bavaria", he had hoped, in calling for his own Land).