Kharkov Police Academy (13 - DCAF

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2.1. Within national police organisations in the EU, reform processes are directed towards the better exploitation of existing resources notably by the following means: - restructuration of police services in view of reducing the number of separate forces and avoiding duplication of efforts in Belgium: federal level (including the central services of the former Gendarmerie and the Judicial Police) and the local level (former municipal police forces and territorial brigades of the former Gendarmerie) - transformation of border guard/border police (having become largely superfluous due to European integration) into a federal police in Germany: the former Bundesgrenzschutz became the „Bundespolizei“ with competences extending to the entire territory (instead of the border area only) - alignment of structures and operating modes of the 43 independent police forces in place in the United Kingdom. The overall aim is to allow police staff to focus its working capacity on genuine police work (crime prevention and detection) by (a) reducing the heavy bureaucratic burden currently on the shoulders of all officers and (b) transferring minor aspects of disorder to suitable support staff („Community Support Officers“), which will be part of an „extended police family“. Important to note, that this does not represent a transfer of police powers to private entities, because the state police does maintain the control and supervision of all support staff. 2.2. At the central EU level, the reform trend aims at an increased interlocking of national police services, rather than creating a single EU police service. The specific EU challenge lies in the fact that the common area of Freedom, Security and Justice has to be built upon the co-existence of initially 12, then 15 and 25 distinct legal systems; differently from the economic field, there is no intention of aligning basic structures such as harmonizing criminal codes or a creating a uniform EU police service. Much rather, enforcement integration in the EU relies on the idea of creating „catwalks“ between the different national levels, in order to resolve cross-border situations. Main pillars of the reform are an enhanced level of law enforcement cooperation 2 and joint institution-building in terms of common coordination and support structures. Major achievements include the creation of a number of institutional structures such as the European police office Europol (created in 1994/99 and based in The Hague, NL), the Police Chiefs Task Force (EPCTF since 2000) and the Police College CEPOL (since 2000, based in Bramshill, UK). There are furthermore technical infrastructures, in particular communication and database networks such as the Schengen Information System SIS, soon to be followed by gthe next generation SIS II which is not only capable of providing service to all 25 (and future) Member States but also to include finger prints, biometric data and photos. Also there are funding programmes such AGIS to financially promote EU-wide cooperation between law enforcement services. Another cornerstone of joint EU policing concerns the integrated management of the external EU border. The abolition of all controls at internal borders puts additional importance to the existence of smooth but effective controls at the external EU borders which have to take into account the interests of all 25 2 to be discussed in more detail in the presentation on law enforcement cooperation (see separate sheet) 2
Member States. In order to ensure such efficiency and help to share the burden of Member States on the periphery of the Union, a system of integrated border management is gradually put into place. The primary result of this initiative, launched by the Laeken European Council of 2001, is the creation of the European Border Agency, operational since 1 May 2005, based in Warsaw/Poland and headed by the Finnish border guard colonel Ilkka Laitinen. Furthermore more than 20 Joint Police Centres, composed of enforcement officials of neighbouring Member States, have been set up in border zones all through the EU territory, in order to facilitate crossborder action of operational and judicial services. 3. Police reform in Ukraine has been marked by a post-authoritarian situation characteristic for all FSU states. Main problems to be faced by FSU after independence related to the policingconcept „inherited“ from the Marxist-Leninist past, such as - police being closely linked to the party-state rather than oriented towards the protection of citizens and communities - police as a militarised body („militia“) - centralised hierarchical structures and little decision-making power of the individual police officer. Considerable progress was made in the militia/police reform since 1991, notably through agreement reached on the following crucial items 3 : - militia to focus mainly on the individual and his/her interests - simplification and decentralisation of militia structure - review of information policy, salary/rank structures and other internal organisation features Foreign assistance to police reform has been provided notably through the Council of Europe in view of the creation of a Network of Police and Human Rights co-ordinators (1997-2000) and, as a joint programme with the European Commission, the training of police staff in human rights to be respected in daily police work (2004). The European Commission has supported police-specific projects especially in the framework of democratic institution-building and cooperation in justice and home affairs (cf. 2001 Action Plan). Specific allocations were made to the improvement of border-crossing capacity at various crossing points (Rava Ruska, Uzhgorod), fight against terrorism, asylum management (altogether 72 million EURO between 2000 and 2005). The reform process has nevertheless been hampered by lack of financial resources which seem to have slowed down the practical implementation of reforms intended, notably the demilitarisation of the militia, appropriate increase of salaries to prevent vulnerability of officers to corruption, recruitment of high-quality staff. In addition, limited state capacities in law enforcement have led to the transfer of public tasks to private security firms („multilateralisation of policing“). Relevant international organisations and police experts, assisting in the police reform, stress several items of major importance still to be completed: - reduction of the bureaucratic burden on police staff, which make that „perhaps as few as one quarter are directly employed to protect public order or tackle crime“., 3 cf. Conception of MIA of Ukraine System Development of 1996 3
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Kharkov Police Academy (13 - DCAF

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