Plans drawn up for new Union police academy

Date: 02/03/2000

By Simon Taylor

EU JUSTICE and home affairs ministers will outline plans to set up a European police academy to train law-enforcement officers at a meeting in Lisbon this week.

A study drawn up by Council of Ministers officials proposes a two-stage approach towards training Europe's senior police officers in the fight against cross-border crime.

The paper recommends that a network of European police colleges should be set up by the beginning of next year to develop a common curriculum for training officers and educating senior policemen and women about EU-related criminal matters. Officials say that the network is likely to draw its inspiration from the Association of European Police Colleges, which was created in 1996 to exchange best practice.

At a later stage, probably one to two years after the network has been founded, a European Police College will be established to provide training facilities for top officers from both EU member states and the countries queuing up to join the Union.

The precise cost of setting up such an academy has yet to be calculated, but some member states are already busy lobbying hard for the right to host the new 'school'. Only the UK and Italy have thrown their hats into the ring so far, but officials expect other countries to follow suit soon.

Ministers will also discuss controversial plans to set up a network of justice officials - or 'Eurojust' as it is known in EU jargon - at their two-day meeting, which begins tomorrow (3 March).

The Commission plans to present a list of areas where member states already cooperate in the justice field and where they should work more closely in the future. Officials say the priority is to focus on issues affecting European citizens, such as common rules for handling cross-border problems related to divorces and mortgages, before moving on to trans-frontier criminal matters.

"People do not realise that the free movement of people is theoretical if they do not have common justice rules," said one, adding: "Only when we have an internal market in justice can we start discussing European citizenship."

EU justice and home affairs ministers will outline plans to set up a European police academy to train law-enforcement officers at a meeting in Lisbon, 3.3.00.