Brussels, 16/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Union's Member States promised on Thursday to commit close to 300 judicial experts to support EU crisis management operations. "The Rule of Law Commitment Conference", meeting in Brussels, indeed enabled Member States to appoint some 282 experts. This initial indication has still to be confirmed and fleshed-out, the Council explains. The number, that could still be increased somewhat, and the exact distribution by country, still needs working out. Some experts, the number of which remains to be defined, could be mobilised in a month at most. This commitment comes on top of the one made in November last for the mobilisation by 2003 of 5,000 police officers, 1,413 of whom could be mobilised rapidly (EUROPE of 20 November). These two civilian chapters for the EU's future crisis management force complements its military chapter decided in the framework of the European Security and Defence Policy (see EUROPE of 13/14 May, p.5 and 20 November 2001). This objective of a judicial chapter to crisis management was set at the European Summit of Gothenburg. When opening the Conference, the EU's High Representative for Cfsp, Javier Solana stressed all the importance of being able to mobilise experts in the "Rule of Law" for mission in countries in crisis. "Such capabilities are important on their own, but could also represent a valuable complement to other crisis management instruments on which the EU has progressed recently", he declared, stressing that Rule of law experts could wok in conjunction with a police operation, such as the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina", which is to begin in January. "It as not easy" to identify these experts, who are "a rare resources in all countries", he added.