Strasbourg, 28 October 2015
Let me begin by thanking the Rapporteur, Ms Kinga Gál, who has worked hard to find common ground among the shadow rapporteurs, and to expedite the adoption of this regulation.
When it comes to the substance of CEPOL’s reform, we can all welcome the final outcome, as this would reinforce CEPOL’s ability:
– to prepare police officers to cooperate effectively,
– to develop a common law enforcement culture
– and to become the centre of excellence of training of law enforcement officers of the EU.
Training is key in this respect.
The European Agenda on Security underlines that this is an essential element to enhancing the security of our Union. Training is essential to allow authorities on the ground to exploit our law enforcement cooperation tools in an operational situation.
The CEPOL Regulation is an evolution rather than a revolution:
The network based character of CEPOL is maintained.
The Agency will continue to bring together the network of training institutes of the Member States and liaising with a single National unit in each Member State.
CEPOL is now entrusted with the task of coordinating the implementation of the Law Enforcement Training Scheme (LETS).
The overall objective of the Scheme is to present a coordinated policy approach ensuring high quality training for law enforcement officials.
This new role widens the opportunities for CEPOL to support, develop, deliver and coordinate training for law enforcement officers of all ranks, and not just senior officials.
The reform provides also for the professionalization of CEPOL’s management. The members of the Management Board will be appointed taking into account their knowledge of training for law enforcement officers and they will be assisted by a Scientific Committee for Training, to further ensure quality and coherence of training programmes.
CEPOL’s work will of course come in addition to the welcome initiatives taken by the Member States in the field of training for law enforcement personnel.
I am also very encouraged by the strong role ensured for the European Parliament in the CEPOL Regulation:
-the European Parliament will be the recipient of the agency’s annual planning documents and is, of course, the budgetary authority for all EU bodies.
-In addition, the Management Board shall consult the European Parliament on CEPOL’s multiannual work programme.
The idea is to provide the opportunity for a strategic debate on the direction the agency should take.
– The European Parliament will also receive all activity reports and accounts, and all evaluations commissioned.
– The Director of CEPOL will additionally report to the European Parliament on the performance of his duties when invited to do so.
This said, the Commission has misgivings on two central aspects of this reform, as it comes before us today.
These two aspects are: the governance of the agency and the respect of the EU budgetary principles, which are of course very important for the Commission.
On both these aspects, the outcome of the negotiation process is not in line with what the Commission has proposed nor in line with the trilaterally agreed common approach on EU decentralized agencies.
Let me take this opportunity to recall the inter-institutional commitment, to use such revisions of agencies’ founding acts (as with CEPOL and EUROPOL) as opportunities to implement and to comply with the Common Approach.
This Common Approach includes:
– the reinforcement of the supervisory role of the Management Board
(including by ensuring full participation by the Commission),
– ensuring a transparent selection procedure for Directors and
– the necessary adoption of a programing document with a multi-annual component,
– the possible setting up of an executive board to ensure more efficiency
– and the obligation to better follow-up on evaluations and audits.
The Commission regrets the lack of political commitment to ensure respect of the Common Approach on EU decentralised agencies, in particular regarding the role or composition of the agencies’ management structures.
On these two points the Commission wants to table a statement to make clear its position.
I would ask you therefore to add the statement of the Commission to the minutes of the meeting.
COMMISSION STATEMENT
“The Commission takes note of the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and Council.
The Commission regrets that this agreement is not fully aligned with the principles of the Common Approach on the EU decentralised agencies Nor with the financial rules applicable to these agencies and considers that the agreed text on the governance of the agency and on its funding is without prejudice to any future legislative texts.
The possibility of funding part of CEPOL’s tasks through ad hoc grants or delegation agreements contradicts the fundamental principle that the tasks of an agency as described in its constituent act are financed by the annual contribution from the EU budget and not through ad hoc grants or delegation agreements.
The Commission underlines that the respect of this principle is essential to allow the budget authority to take an informed decision about the annual contribution foreseen for each agency in the annual budget.
The Commission refers to the Framework Financial Regulation for agencies[1]
which limits the possibility for agencies to receive funding through ad hoc grants or delegation agreements to exceptional cases in line with the principle of transparency and sound financial management.”
Thank you for your attention.
[1] Articles 7 and 8 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) n° 1271/2013 on the framework financial regulation for the bodies referred to in Article 208 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) N° 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council