ANNUAL REPORT - CEP, the European Organisation for Probation

ANNUAL REPORT

Index (links to pages) 

3 Preface - Marc Cerón i Riera, CEP President 

3 2010: Matching ambition and caution 

20 Strategic objective: Raising the profile of 

probation at a national and a European level 

21 European institutions 

5 Activities 

21 European sector of probation 

6 Strategic objective: Unite organisations 

and individuals working in probation and 

criminal justice 

7 Acquiring more members 

7 Germany 

8 Slovakia and Cyprus 

9 Universities 

9 EU candidate countries 

10 Other organisations and individuals 

11 Special target groups 

24 European professional organisations active 

in criminal justice 

25 Individual countries 

27 Internal organisation 

27 Meetings 

28 External expertise 

30 Workstreams 

30 Equipment 

11 European Probation Values 

12 Bursaries 

32 Income and expenditure 

33 Notes to the financial report 

13 Strategic objective: Enhance the 

professionalization of the sector of probation 

in Europe Conferences 

13 Conferences 

33 General 

33 Summary of significant accounting policies 

33 Employee data 

15 Website 

16 Email Newsletter 

17 Register of Experts 

18 Probation in Europe 

18 EuroVista 

CEP ANNUAL REPORT 2010 2

Preface 

2010: Matching ambition and caution 

In September 2008 the worst economic 

crisis since the Great Depression 

broke out. Starting as a banking 

crisis, the consequences for the 

public sector were not yet clear at 

the time, notably because budgets 

for 2009 had already been fixed by 

autumn 2008. As such, 2010 can be 

seen as the first full year in which the 

credit crunch impacted on governments 

and government-depending 

services in Europe, including the 

probation sector. 

In May of that same year, CEP held 

its 10 th General Assembly, in Malaga. 

At this event, the CEP member 

organisations discussed the priorities 

of CEP for the period 2010- 

2013. The discussions were clearly 

marked by two elements: ambition, 

because of the incessant developments 

of the sector of probation in 

Europe, and caution, as almost all 

CEP member organisations were 

faced with budget cuts. 

In this setting, the Assembly accepted 

the proposals of the CEP Board to 

intensify its contacts with European 

institutions, and most notably with 

the EU Commission, while maintaining 

the current pace of development 

of activities and services. It agreed 

that an expansion of staff capacity 

was indispensable. However, the 

members of CEP also indicated that 

under the present economic circumstances 

a raise of the membership 

fees was out of the question. 

The message for the CEP Board 

was clear: in the coming years until 

the next General Assembly in 2013, 

CEP has to work as cost-effective 

as possible, while actively look for 

additional funding, and work on 

a plan that can be presented to 

its members at the next General 

Assembly on how it can cover all its 

operating costs with the membership 

fees. 

Anticipating on the conclusion that 

additional funding had to be sought, 

CEP had applied for an operating 

grant for the year 2010 under the 

criminal justice funding programme 

of the European Commission. Even 

before it was clear whether or not 

the European Commission would 

award a grant to CEP, the application 

turned out to be very useful. 

Before the application, CEP would 

only draw up a global budget of the 

next year. For the operating grant 

application however, it had to draw 

up an annual plan, a budget which 

was specified on action level, as 

well as an annual report over the 

previous year. This exercise proved 

to be very useful, and this more 

structured approach to prepare for 

the coming (financial) year was welcomed 

with enthusiasm by the new 

CEP Board, which regarded this new 

way of working as an important step 

in the professional development of 

the organisation of CEP. 

Just two weeks after the General 

Assembly in Malaga, CEP was 

informed that the operating grant 

had been awarded. This enabled 

CEP to start to implement the strategy 

of the new CEP Board elected 

at the General Assembly in Malaga, 

to realize under the current circumstances 

its core objectives of: 

• Uniting those working in probation 

and criminal justice, by further 

expanding the membership of probation 

(related) organisations and 

individuals working in probation 

in those countries that belong to 

the Council of Europe and are not 

yet represented at CEP level, thus 

reflecting the diversity of probation 

practice across Europe, unified by 

the principles of CEP. A special mention 

should be made for increasing 

the CEP membership among Universities 

and Research Centres, to 

add value to the strong message 

promoted by CEP that probation is 

a viable option in the management 

of offenders 

• Professionalizing the sector of probation 

in Europe by increasing the 

relevance and quality of CEP conferences, 

improving the means of 

communication, by enhancing the 

use of the CEP Register of Experts 

and by actively taking other initiatives 

contributing to this goal 

• Raising the profile of probation at 

both a European level, by intensifying 

its collaboration with European 

institutions and organisations, and 

a national level by supporting member 

organisations in their advocacy 

for probation 

• Further developing CEP as a fullservice, 

financially independent 

member-organisation. 


Preface 

2010: Matching ambition and caution 

In this report the activities of CEP 

in the year 2010 are presented. The 

report is structured in accordance 

with the CEP Annual Plan 2010 

which gave a description of its 

planned actions in the three fields of 

the main objectives of CEP (to unite 

the sector of probation in Europe, 

to enhance its professionalization, 

to strengthen its profile), followed 

by a description of the developments 

in the internal organisation. 

To this report text boxes have been 

added in which the planned actions 

mentioned in the annual plan 2010 

are compared with the real actions 

executed. 

I hope that in the following chapters 

you will find information of interest 

to you and at the same time that you 

get a sense of the enthusiasm and 

commitment of the CEP staff and 

the Board. 

Marc Cerón I Riera 

CEP President 


Xxxx Activities 

CEP is the European organisation for probation. It believes that a society built on 

the principles of social inclusion provides the best protection for communities 

from the harm and distress caused by crime. Committed to unite organizations 

and individual persons all over Europe sharing these same principles, CEP aims 

to enhance the professionalisation of the probation sector and to raise the profile 

of probation at a national and a European level. 

This Annual Report 2010 provides an overview of the activities of CEP in 2010, 

classified by the three main strategic objectives. The report is published digitally. 

Clickable links refer to relevant web pages. 


Strategic objective: 

Unite organisations and individuals working in probation and 


Every Board term CEP has managed 

to enlarge its network by recruiting 

more member organisations. CEP 

will continue to do this, ideologically 

motivated to unite all organisations 

active in the field of probation in 

Europe, and practically motivated 

since more members constitute a 

firmer base for growth of CEP. In 

practice many organisations became 

a member after CEP had outlined the 

benefits that member organisations 

have from CEP. In 2010, in its efforts 

to acquire more members, CEP has 

given priority to targeting potential 

member organisations which will 

increase the impact of CEP as the 

European advocate for the sector of 

probation. That means that CEP first 

and foremost concentrated on: 

• Acquiring more members among 

the institutions responsible for 

probation in Germany, i.e. the Ministries 

of Justice of the German 

States and the federal Ministry of 

Justice, as the biggest EU member 

state was underrepresented 

in CEP 

• Trying to include potential member 

organisations from Slovakia 

and Cyprus in the network of CEP, 

since these countries were the only 

EU Members States not yet represented 

in CEP 

• Gaining the membership of at least 

five universities in Europe which 

contribute to the geographical 

spread of the academic representation 

in CEP. At the beginning of 2010 

the member universities of CEP only 

represented England&Wales, Scotland 

and the Netherlands; in addition 

one lecturer of the University of 

Bucharest was member at individual 

base 

• Converting the good contacts that 

CEP has in various EU candidate 

Member States (Croatia, Turkey, 

Macedonia) into memberships. 

United Europe 





Acquiring more members 

Germany 

In 2008 and 2009, CEP decisively 

sought contact with Ministries of 

Justice at national and Land-level. 

Already early in 2010 this paid off 

when the Ministry of Justice of the 

German State of Baden-Württemberg 

joined CEP in January. This 

would remain the only concrete 

success in acquiring new members 

from Germany for the rest of 

the year. Shortly after welcoming 

its first Ministry of Justice from Germany 

among its members, CEP 

managed to put the CEP membership 

on the agenda of the regular 

bilateral meeting between the 

Dutch Minister of Justice Hirsch- 

Ballin and the German Minister of 

Justice Mrs. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, 

in January 2010. Earlier 

contact by email and telephone with 

the Bundesministerium resulted in a 

refusal to become member of CEP, 

as the Bundesministerium has the 

point of view that the competency 

for probation lays at the level of 

the Länder. Although this is true, 

the Bundesministerium remains 

responsible for the implementation 

of international regulations in the 

field of probation, such as the EU 

Framework Decision 2008/JHA/947, 

on the mutual recognition of probation 

sanctions and alternative 

measures. Minister Hirsch Ballin, a 

warm supporter of CEP, stressed 

the importance of the membership 

with his German colleague. Minister 

Leutheusser promised she would 

reconsider the CEP membership. In 

March, however, the Bundesministerium 

declined a written invitation 

of CEP to become member for the 

sole reason that under the current 

budgetary situation CEP membership 

was not possible. However, the 

Minister indicated that she was willing 

to reconsider CEP membership 

when the budgetary situation would 

be more favorable. 

Equally in March CEP followed 

up its contacts in the States of 

Schleswig-Holstein and Meckelenburg-Vorpommern, 

after first 

getting in touch with the Justizministeriums 

in 2009. Both indicated 

that due to budgetary reasons, 

they could not become CEP member 

in 2010. 

Registration at the CEP conference in Frankfurt in December 

In February the Secretary General 

travelled to Stuttgart, in order to 

present on the current developments 

in probation in Europe at 

a conference organised by a professional 

organisation for staff 

working in probation in Germany 

(PräventSozial Justiznahe Soziale 

Dienste gemeinnützige GmbH). This 

was an ideal opportunity to promote 

the name of CEP at the level 

of probation practitioners, which 

would make CEP better known 

in different echelons of probation 

organizations all over Germany. 





In June the Secretary General had 

the opportunity to be a presenter a 

conference on transition management 

in Frankfurt. As this is a topical 

issue in Germany, the conference 

was a good occasion to meet delegates 

of Ministries of Justice with 

which CEP was not in contact before. 

This proved to be indeed the case, 

as the Secretary General got into 

contact with a representative from 

the Ministry of Justice of Saarland. 

The Secretary General of CEP travelled 

to two German States early 

December. In Magdeburg he presented 

on a conference on probation 

organised by the Landesverband für 

Straffälligen- und Bewährungshilfe 

Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. and managed 

to establish contacts with representatives 

of the Ministry of Justice 

of Sachsen-Anhalt. One day later, 

he attended the CEP conference in 

Frankfurt, where he met delegates 

from the Ministries of Justice of 

Baden-Württemberg, Hessen and 

Meckelenburg-Vorpommern. 

In September the CEP Liaison 

Officer attended a meeting of Violence 

Prevention Network in Berlin. 

On the basis of the list of participants, 

this event was well suited 

to get in contact with delegates of 

the Ministries of Justice of the State 

of Brandenburg. This resulted in 

closer contact with the Ministry, but 

not in a membership of CEP, due to 

budgetary reasons. 

Planned 

Executed 

Making 4 travels to visit 8 German Länder to interest these 

for CEP membership 

CEP visited four German Länder in four travels. CEP raised 

the possibility to become member of CEP with delegates 

of Ministries of Justice in 8 German States, three of which 

CEP wasn’t in contact before (Hessen, Saarland and 

Sachsen-Anhalt). 

One Bundesland became member of CEP 

Slovakia and Cyprus 

CEP was one of the project partners 

of the EU-funded project Preparation 

of the practical implementation 

of the framework decision on 

the mutual recognition of probation 

measures, led by the Federal Public 

Service Justice of Belgium. At the 

final conference in July in Durbuy, 

the CEP President (representing 

Catalonia at the conference), one 

of the two Vice-Presidents (IE), one 

Board Member (LU) and the CEP 

Secretary General met with representatives 

from the Ministries of 

Justice from Cyprus and Slovakia. 

In the second half of the year these 

contacts were intensified. 

In the case of Slovakia, this led 

to a visit of the Secretary Gene ral 

to the Secretary of State of 

the Ministry of Justice in Bratislava 

and to the Constantine the 

Philosopher University in Nitra, in 

December. The same month, the 

university decided to become 

member of CEP. The International 

Secretary of State was favorable 

towards formally adhering to CEP. 

The Minister of Justice herself is 

currently considering the membership 

of CEP. 

The contacts with Cyprus however 

did not result in a visit in 2010. The 

Ministry of Justice argued that the 

membership of CEP wouldn’t be 

relevant, as Cyprus does not have 

a probation service. This being the 

official stance of the Ministry, CEP 

will keep on trying to convince the 

Ministry of the importance of the 





EU Framework Decision on probation 

measures and alternative sanctions, 

and therefore will continue to 

urge for a meeting with the Ministry 

to discuss the implementation of 

this Framework Decision. 

Planned 

Executed 

Making 2-day visits to Cyprus and Slovakia 

Slovakia was visited, resulting in the membership of the 

Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, and 

the consideration of the Ministry of Justice to become 

CEP member (decision still pending). The planned trip to 

Cyprus has been postponed to 2011 

Universities 

Via the Register of Experts, Prof. vidual member of CEP in January 

Martine Evans-Herzog of the Université 

de Reims (FR) became indiversity 

of Applied Sciences (NL) 

2010. One month later Avans Uni- 

Planned To gain the membership of at least five universities in 

Europe which contribute to the geographical spread of the 

academic representation in CEP 

Executed Seven new universities joined CEP in 2010. Four of these 

are from countries which were not yet represented in the 

academic network of CEP 

became CEP member. In April the 

De Montfort University of Leicester 

(ENG) joined, followed in November 

2010 by the Constantine the 

Philosopher University in Nitra (SK) 

and the University Pompeu Fabra in 

Barcelona (CAT). In December 2010 

the prestigious Institute of Criminology 

of the University of Cambridge 

(ENG), as well as the Universita’ 

della Calabria (IT) joined CEP. 

EU candidate countries 

In the beginning February 2010, 

the CEP Secretary General visited 

the Ministry of Justice of Croatia. 

His visit must have come at the 

right moment, because the Ministry 

applied for the CEP membership 

shortly after, which led to the 

acceptance of the application only 

two weeks after the Secretary General 

returned from Zagreb. 

The fact that one of the CEP Board 

Members was Residential Twinning 

Advisor based in Ankara helped 

CEP to develop a good relationship 

with the Ministry of Justice. 

In May 2010 a delegation of the 

Turkish ministry visited the CEP 

General Assembly in Malaga, and 

4 months later the CEP Secretary 

General attended a conference of 

the Ministry of Justice in Ankara, 

where he also acted as a speaker. 

At this occasion the CEP Secretary 

General met with the General 

Director of Prisons and Detention 

Houses of the Turkish Ministry of 

Justice; a planned meeting with 

the minister of Justice was cancelled 

by the Ministry at the last moment. 

In his speech at the conference the 





Director General announced that he 

was favorable toward CEP membership, 

but the decision of the formal 

application had to be taken by the 

Minister. This being the case, CEP 

has planned to visit Turkey again in 

2011 in order to speak to the Minister 

of Justice. 

In June the Ministry of Justice of 

Macedonia showed interest in the 

CEP membership by email. CEP 

has planned a visit to the ministry 

in order to discuss the membership 

in 2011. 

Planned 

Visits to Turkey and Croatia to gain the CEP membership 

of the Ministries of Justice 

Executed 

Both visits were made. The Croatian Ministry of Justice 

became member very shortly after the visit. Turkey 

hasn’t applied yet but seems to be favorable toward 

membership 

Secretary General Leo Tigges 

meeting with officials of the Turkish 

Ministry of Justice 

Other organisations and individuals 

In addition to the probation organisations 

that CEP had actively targeted 

to enlarge its network in 2010, 

CEP had the pleasure to welcome 

also other new members. In March 

2010, the CEP Secretary General 

travelled to Greece, in order to 

visit EPANODOS, an NGO which in 

2009 had become the first member 

organisation to represent Greece 

in CEP. The Secretary General also 

visited the Ministry of Justice to talk 

about CEP membership. In May, 

the ministry indeed became member 

of CEP. 

of a former Board member of CEP, 

who is currently helping the Georgian 

government to reform its penal 

system. 

After intensive contacts with the 

CEP President, the Catalan NGOs 

APIP and INTRESS became member 

of CEP in April and December 

2010 respectively. 

Emblem of the Ministry of Justice 

of Georgia 

Similar to Turkey, a delegation of 

the Georgian Ministry of Justice 

attended the CEP General Assembly 

in May in Malaga. Five months 

later the Ministry of Justice of Georgia 

became indeed member of CEP. 

This quick conversion from a first 

contact into a membership was 

probably spurred by the lobbying 

Furthermore seven probation professionals 

became member of CEP 

on an individual basis. 





Special target groups 

In probably every country in the EU cial needs of foreign national prisoners. 

In order to raise the issue for this 

the number of foreign national prisoners 

has been growing steadily special target group with its member 

over the years. Therefore working organisations, the Special Interest 

with foreign national prisoners has Group (SIG) for Foreign national 

become a high priority in prison systems 

all around Europe. However, 

Prisoners was established in 2008. 

many CEP member organisations In 2009 CEP started to develop an 

have not begun to address the spe- 

action plan for Foreign National Pris- 

Planned Two Board meetings will take place to develop an action 

plan for the promotion of Foreign National Prisoners as a 

group that requires special care in probation systems at a 

national level 

Executed No Board Meetings have taken place due to illness of the 

Chairman of the Board 

oners, which should be presented in 

October 2010. The implementation 

of the plan then could start by the 

beginning of 2011. 

However, in the first half of 2010 the 

SIG Board Member who had the 

lead in the development of the action 

plan fell severely ill. His recovery 

took about six months, which made 

the SIG made decide to postpone 

the presentation of its action plan to 

March 2011. In the last three months 

of the year intensive communication 

between the other SIG Board Members 

took place in order to prepare 

the rescheduled presentation. 

European Probation Values 

In 2009 CEP started to define a collective 

vision and set of basic values 

that are shared by all members. 

Since CEP is the largest network in 

probation in Europe, the creation 

of these European values can be 

seen as the definition of a European 

concept of probation. Assisted 

in this task by Prof. Rob Canton, 

who -together with Prof. Anton van 

Kalmthout- was at the basis of the 

draft of the Council’s of Europe Recommendation 

on Probation, CEP 

presented its European Probation 

Values at the CEP General Assembly 

in Malaga, where these were letter, Ilina Taneva, secretary to the 

In the March issue of the CEP News- 

amended and adopted by the members 

of CEP. In October the official Council of Europe, illustrated the 

Penological Council (PC-CP) of the 

text of the values, originally written importance of this base document. 

in English, was fixed. 

“The 18 CEP values are highlighting 

Planned To finalize the European Probation Values and translate 

these in French and German 

Executed The European Probation Values have been finalized and 

translated 





and commenting the most important 

standards contained in the 

Council of Europe’s Recommendation 

on Probation. The values are 

addressing in the first place the 

practitioners who work with offenders, 

while as the Recommendation 

is addressing also the national 

authorities which should ensure the 

legal and practical basis needed for 

a high quality probation work”. 

Bursaries 

Traditionally CEP reserves a small 

part of its budget for supporting 

delegates of organisations active 

in probation that have insufficient 

financial means for attending conferences 

abroad. As notably these 

countries will benefit from European 

knowledge and information 

exchange, CEP considers it a duty 

to connect them to the European 

probation community. 

In 2010, all requests for bursaries (2), Turkey (2) and Georgia (1), all 

were accepted by CEP. Seven bursaries 

have been awarded to del- 

General Assembly and following 

with the purpose to attend the CEP 

egates from Greece (2), Romania conference in May, in Malaga. 

Planned To provide a maximum of 20 bursaries to enable probation 

professionals to attend meetings in other European countries 

Executed Seven bursaries were provided 



Enhance the professionalization of the sector of probation in Europe 

In the last ten years, the increased 

importance of the probation sector 

in all criminal justice systems 

in Europe has brought about an 

unprecedented dynamism. While 

some countries are in the process 

of developing community sanctions 

and have been setting up national 

probation services, other more 

longstanding organisations are 

focused on meeting the changing 

needs of changing societies, taking 

into account the specific sociocultural 

circumstances and the context 

of the national criminal justice 

system(s) in which they operate. The 

European Union and the Council of 

Europe have become major actors 

in the development of a ‘European 

probation’. The academic world is 

showing a growing interest in the 

effectiveness of probation methods 

and the underlying processes lead 

ingto successful probation practice, 

which enhances the development 

of a true ‘science of probation’. And 

an increasing number of enterprises 

active in the realm of security discovers 

the sector of probation as 

a market. 

The sector of probation thus is 

growing, along with its need for 

exchange of best practices, for 

debate on different perceptions of 

probation, for international benchmarks 

and comparable data and 

for information from other European 

countries to improve the functioning 

of probation services. 

Traditionally CEP has met this need 

by organising high-quality conferences 

on probation topics in close 

cooperation with the host countries. 

Although it has made increased use 

of ICT facilities in the last five years 

in order to contribute to the continuous 

professionalization of probation 

services in Europe by facilitating the 

exchange of information, organising 

conferences has always been 

an important CEP-activity to bring 

together professionals in probation 

from all over Europe. 

Conferences 

Over the years CEP has steadily 

expanded the annual number of 

conferences and expert meetings 

that it (co-)organises. By joining 

in European-funded projects as a 

project partner, CEP has managed 

to raise the annual number of conferences 

and expert meetings even 

further in 2010. The scheme on the 

following page gives an overview of 

the events held under the auspices 

of CEP in 2010. 

European conference “Probation Works”, in Malaga 




Spain January European expert meeting “Radicalisation in Prison and Probation”, in Segovia 

the event took place in the framework of the ISEC funded project RIRP 

UK April European conference “What Works in Reducing Re-offending”, in Cambridge 

the event took place in the framework of the ISEC funded project STARR 

Spain May European conference “Probation Works”, in Malaga 

the event took place in the framework of the 10 th CEP General Assembly 

Hungary June European expert meeting “What Works with Young Offenders”, in Budapest 


UK October European conference ‘Engaging with Radicalised Offenders in Prison and 

on Probation’, in London 

the event took place in the framework of the ISEC funded project RIRP 

France November European expert meeting “Fight against Domestic Violence: Comparative 

European Practice”, in Paris 


Germany December European conference Probation in Europe: “Social Work - Risk Management - 

Community”, in Frankfurt 

European expert meeting “Fight against Domestic Violence: Comparative European Practice”, in Paris 




Website 

In 2007, when CEP decided that it 

should develop the organisation into 

an independent full-service professional 

organisation for the sector 

of probation in Europe, it identified 

the new ICT communication possibilities 

as the most (cost-)effective 

way to connect with its member 

organisations all around the 

continent and beyond. As such, a 

new up-to-date website was developed 

and expanded rapidly over the 

years. As a result of the development 

of many new ICT products, the 

development of the CEP website 

is a continuing task, guided by the 

principles to facilitate the (digital) 

information exchange in the sector 

of probation in Europe, and to work 

more cost-effectively as an umbrella 

organisation. 

For 2010, CEP gave priority to adding 

a forum to its website, which the 

CEP members could use as a digital 

platform for the interactive exchange 

of information among each other. 

Secondly, with an ever growing 

number of documents to be made 

accessible via the CEP website, the 

accessibility of information on the 

website needed to optimized. As a 

third main item for the development 

of the CEP website, it was planned 

to bring the French version of the 

website in line with the (more developed) 

English version, by translating 

the ‘missing’ parts. 

All these three priorities were realized 

in 2010. In April a membersonly 

forum was added to the CEP 

website. By integrating Google Site 

search, the most powerful and most 

widely used search engine in the 

world, in www.cep-probation.org, 

the biggest repository of information 

on probation in Europe on the world 

wide web was made easily accessible 

for visitors of the website. 

Also some additional infrastructural 

changes of the website were made 

in order to optimize the ‘searchability’ 

of the CEP website. In October 

the ‘missing parts’ on the French 

version of the website were translated 

from English and put online. 

Apart from these priorities, the CEP 

website was expanded with several 

other modules that contribute to 

achieving a greater cost-effectiveness 

and a more efficient use of the 

website. This was made possible 

by an increase of the staff capacity 

of CEP. In the first half of the 

year the Communications Officer 

of CEP effectively combined two 

functions which were split in two 

different functions in the second half 

of the year after the operating grant 

became available: Communications 

Officer and Liaison Officer. As 

the (pre-operating grant ) Communications 

Officer became the Liaison 

Officer, a new Communication 

Officer was assigned in July. 

Since then a module to create web 

forms was added to the content 

management system of the website. 

This meant that CEP could make 

web forms in-house; previously 

these had to be made externally. 

As such the module made it more 

easy to use web forms in the digital 

communications with the CEP mem- 




bers, while it also saves costs on the 

budget for external web services. 

Another module was added by 

which visitors of the website could 

quickly inform others about news 

on the CEP website. This ‘tell-afriend’ 

module is an effective way 

to increase the number of visitors to 

the CEP website. 

In order to analyse how the www. 

cep-probation.org is being used by 

its visitors, CEP integrated a new 

statistical programme in its website. 

Its old statistical programme 

regularly caused dysfunctions on 

the CEP website, as the space for 

the collection of data (page visits) 

was too small. The new statistical 

programme, Google Analytics, is 

one of the most powerful on the 

market. 

In December CEP started communicating 

via social media by making 

use of Twitter for instant messaging 

to all those interested in probation 

in Europe. 

Planned 

To add a forum to the CEP website, as well as a module to make web forms in-house 

To translate web text form English into French, in order to bring the French version of the website in 

line with the English version 

To further maintain and develop the website 

Executed 

A forum was added to the CEP website. 

In the content management system a module was added to make web forms. Several other modules 

and modalities were added to the website which enhance the efficiency of www.cep-probation.org 

and increase the cost-effectiveness of the work streams of the organisation 

Email Newsletter 

With its email newsletter, which has 

an English and a French version, 

CEP regularly informs its members 

and others who are interested 

about the latest developments in 

probation in Europe. As planned, 

CEP published six issues of the 

CEP Newsletter in 2010, sent to 

over 1,300 addresses. In addition, 

the Newsletter is being published 

on intranet sites and websites of 

several member organisations. 

As a part of the effort to increase 

the cost-efficiency in its work proc- 

Planned 

Executed 

To publish six issues of the English and French version of the CEP Newsletter (costs involved in the 

operating grant budget are : layout, translations, freelance texts, stock photos and sending) 

To add a module to the content management system of the website to keep layout and publication 

of the newsletter in-house 

Six issues of the Newsletter were published. The module was implemented five months earlier than 

planned; as such CEP managed to economize on the production costs of the Newsletter. A further 

saving was made as no stock photos were used 




esses, CEP planned to purchase a 

module which could be added to the 

CEP website management system, 

in order to keep the layout and publication 

of the Newsletter in-house 

(previously layout and publication 

were outsourced). With regard to 

the work planning of the Communications 

Officer, the installation of the 

module was planned in December. 

However, shortly after her assignment 

in July, the new Communications 

Officer decided to implement 

the module as soon as possible, in 

order to maximize the benefits of the 

cost-efficiency. As such, the module 

was implemented in August. 

Register of Experts 

In the last few years CEP noticed 

a clear need among its member 

organisations to draw upon expert 

knowledge from abroad in order to 

further develop their own probation 

services. However, to find the 

persons with the needed expertise 

proved to be difficult. In order to 

bring together experts in probation 

and probation services that wish to 

make use of expert knowledge to 

improve their probation practice, 

CEP took the initiative to establish a 

Register of Experts in 2009. 

The Register is in fact a pool of experts 

in probation who can be consulted 

by probation services in Europe. In 

the first stage, experts were invited 

to join the Register. Once a number 

of 20 experts would have joined, 

the Register would be opened for 

applications from probation organisations, 

which was planned for 2010. 

The Register is developed and managed 

by a Board, consisting of three 

persons. Two Board meetings were 

planned for 2010, one in London and 

one in Dublin. 

As a result of the very thorough scrutiny 

procedure of candidate experts, 

the 20 th expert was accepted in 

December 2010, so that the CEP 

Register of Experts was opened for 

probation services in January 2011. 

The Board of the Register effectively 

communicated regularly by email 

and telephone, so no physical Board 

meetings were deemed necessary. 

Planned 

To open the Register of Experts for requests from probation services 

Two Register of Expert Board Meetings (one in London, one in Dublin) 

Executed The Register of Experts was opened for requests form probation services in December 2010 

No physical meetings were held due to effective communication of the Board Members via email 

and telephone 




Probation in Europe 

In 2008, Probation in Europe, the 

most comprehensive survey of 

probation systems and probation 

services in Europe today, was published 

on the initiative of CEP. Being 

a valuable reference work for probation 

professionals in their international 

contacts, the book was 

almost completely sold out within 

one year. 

After the book was sold out, CEP 

agreed with the authors of the book 

that the entire content of Probation 

in Europe could be made available 

via the CEP website. In 2010 the 

full descriptions of 32 probations 

systems in Europe have become 

accessible online, which made the 

CEP website the biggest repository 

of information on probation in 

Europe on the world wide web. 

Since these descriptions are very 

extensive and sometimes only 

a quick overview of a probation 

system in one particular country 

is needed, CEP planned to commission 

the author of Probation in 

Europe to make (partly updated) 

summaries of all 32 country chapters 

which would be made available 

via the CEP website in 2010. This 

action was realized at the end of 

March. 

Due to the dynamics in the sector 

of probation in all European countries, 

CEP foresees that the book 

should be revised every two years. 

The (online) publication of the first 

up date was planned for the end of 

2010, but by the middle of the year 

this planning proved to be too ambitious. 

For the first two revisions, CEP 

managed to secure funding with the 

Dutch Ministry of Justice. 

Planned 

To make summaries of every country chapter of Probation 

in Europe, and make these available via the CEP website 

Executed 

The summaries can be downloaded from the CEP website 

since the end of March 

EuroVista 

In order to support the development 

of a ‘science of probation’, 

and to create a scholarly platform 

for academics and probation practitioners 

to reflect on probation, the 

Institute of Local Government Studies 

of the University of Birmingham 

and CEP joined forces to establish 

a new Journal of Probation, called 

EuroVista: Probation and Community 

Justice. The Journal would be 

published three times a year, both 

in print (responsibility of the University 

of Birmingham) and online via a 

dedicated website (responsibility of 

CEP). Each issue will be prepared 

by an Editorial Board composed of 

both representatives of the University 

of Birmingham and of CEP. 




After publishing the first two issues 

of EuroVista, the Chief Editor stepped 

back as planned in August 2010, due 

to his retirement. He was succeeded 

by two new Chief Editors, one from 

the UK, and one from Norway, as this 

is an important contribution to make 

EuroVista a truly European Journal, 

whereas until recently EuroVista was 

leaning rather strongly on contributions 

from England and Wales. Due 

to this change only two issues of 

EuroVista were published in 2010. 

Two Board meetings were held in 

Birmingham, one in May, and one in 

December. 

Planned 

To finalize the website www.euro-vista.org 

To send 3 issues to all CEP members 

To attend one Board Meeting in Birmingham 

Executed 

The EuroVista website went online in May 

Postage for three issues (note: not necessarily published in 

one calendar year) has been paid upfront to the University 

of Birmingham 

Two Board Meetings have been held and attended in 

Birmingham 



Raising the profile of probation at a national and a European level 

In the last three decades, there is 

no year that illustrates the dynamics 

in the sector of probation in 

Europe better than 2010. Possibly 

as a result of the current economic 

crisis, the public debate on ‘safety’ 

has hardened in many European 

countries. The call for tougher punishments 

becomes increasingly 

stronger and ‘soft options’ such as 

probation are increasingly criticized. 

However, economic crises also 

forced many national governments 

to cut public spending and to look 

for opportunities to save costs. As 

such, there is an increased attention 

for probation as a cost-effective 

alternative for prison, which in 

addition can be used to create a 

bigger community involvement in 

criminal justice execution. Together 

with research showing good results 

in reducing recidivism, this attention 

has translated in new opportunities 

for the probation sector in several 

European countries. 

Nonetheless, probation services 

in most of the European countries 

with an established probation system 

are faced with budget cuts as 

a result of reduced public spending, 

which in some occasions lead to 

a large-scale restructuring of the 

(prison and) probation administration. 

In contrast with this trend, several 

‘new’ European countries work 

hard to establish probation systems 

by adopting legal frameworks, create 

probation services, train staff 

and so on. 

More than ever, probation services 

all over Europe clearly noticed the 

increased involvement of European 

institutions in probation in 2010. 

In this year there were several initiatives 

of the sector of probation 

to prepare both the legal and the 

practical implementation of the EU 

Framework Decision on the Mutual 

Recognition of Probation Sanctions 

(2008/947/JHA). Many of the priorities 

mentioned in the Stockholm 

programme made their way into the 

long-term strategy plans of probation 

services in Europe. In January 

2010, the Council of Europe 

adopted Recommendation on 

Probation (Recommendation CM/ 

Rec(2010)1), which effectively sets 

a European standard for probation 

services and probation practices 

for all its 47 Member States. 

Moreover an increasing number 

of probation services engaged in 

acquiring (EU) funding to develop 

probation practice. 

In this spectrum CEP sees itself as 

the ‘voice’ of the sector of probation 

in Europe. On a European level, 

CEP aims to facilitate their involvement 

by being the ‘interface’ of the 

European Institutions for the sector 

of probation in Europe, and vice 

versa. CEP plays this role by regularly 

informing European institutions 

about the relevant developments in 

probation in Europe, and by providing 

necessary information for the 

development of European policy in 

the realm. 




European institutions 

With regard to the EU, a delegation 

of CEP has visited representatives 

of the Directorate General Justice, 

Freedom & Security of the European 

Commission in October to learn 

more about the operating grant procedures 

on the one hand, and to 

inform the Commission representatives 

about trends in the sector of 

probation in Europe on the other. 

Partly as a result of this meeting, 

CEP organised a consultation round 

among its member organisations 

to inventory the priorities of the 

sector, in November. The results of 

this action will be presented to the 

relevant policy officers of the Commission 

in 2011. This action has also 

been discussed by CEP representatives 

with the policy officers of the 

DG on several occasions, such as 

a conference on the implementation 

of the EU Framework Decisions 

2008/947/JHA and 2008/909/JHA 

held in Leeuwarden in April, a conference 

on the implementation of the 

EU Framework Decision 2008/947/ 

JHA in Durbuy in July, and a conference 

on Corrections in Ghent in 

October. 

With regard to the Council of Europe, 

CEP has the observer status in the 

Council for Penological Cooperation 

(PC-CP). As such, it can comment on 

decisions taken by the PC-CP as well 

as contribute to the actions of the 

Council upon request. In 2010, Board 

Members of CEP have attended two 

of the four meetings of the PC-CP 

held in 2010, i.e. the 64 th (May) and 

the 66 th meeting (December). 

Planned 

Executed 

To meet two times with representatives of the EU DG Justice, Freedom & Security in Brussels 

(two CEP delegates per meeting) 

To attend two meetings of the PC-CP in Strasbourg 

One visit to the EU DG Justice, Freedom & Security has been made by a delegation of three 

representatives of CEP 

Two meetings of the PC-CP were attended by Board Members of CEP. The meeting in May in 

Strasbourg was entirely paid for by the employing organisation of the visiting Board Member 

(i.e. the French Probation Service SPIP) 

European sector of probation 

Being the ‘interface’ of the European 

institutions for the sector of 

probation in Europe means that CEP 

stimulates and supports EU policies 

on probation among actors in the 

sector of probation in Europe, e.g. 

by developing initiatives of international 

co-operation or the implementation 

of EU regulations. 

It was for this particular reason 

that CEP decided to advance its 

General Assembly in Malaga from 

October to May, so that the General 

Assembly could be celebrated in 

the context of the Spanish presidency 

of the European Union. The 

CEP General Assembly was indeed 

officially included in the official programme 

of the EU presidency of the 

Kingdom of Spain, which underlines 

the importance of the event for the 

Spanish Government and the key 

role that CEP plays in the network of 

countries of the European Union. 

By initiating and supporting project 

proposals which were to be submit- 




Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese organizers of the CEP General Assemebly and conference 

ted under the funding programmes 

of the EU in 2010, CEP has actively 

stimulated inter-European cooperation 

while contributing at the same 

time to the implementation of EU 

policy. Over the whole year, CEP 

was involved in the following European 

project applications: 

Name of the project proposal: 

Implementation Support for 

Transferring of European Probation 

Sentences (ISTEP) 

Call: JLS/2010/JPEN/AG/ 

Lead partner: 

National Offender Management 

Service (UK) 

Aim of the project: 

with regard to the implementation 

of EU Council Framework Decision 

2008/947/JHA the project aims to 

enhance the ability of probation 

agencies and sentencers within 

each EU Member State to understand 

clearly and have confidence 

in probation processes and procedures 

within each legal jurisdiction 

across the European Union. This 

is done by producing a detailed 

description of the suspended sentences, 

alternative sanctions and 

conditional sentences that exist 

within each legal jurisdiction within 

the European Union. In addition it 

is planned to hold a series of meetings 

in which the issues and procedures 

surrounding the pre and early 

implementation phases can be discussed 

and resolved by Member 

State representatives 

Countries involved: 

UK, Bulgaria, Lithuania, the Netherlands, 

Romania, Spain 


Sustaining Probation Officers’ 

Resilience in Europe (SPORE) 

Call: JLS/2010/JPEN/AG/ 

Lead partner: 

State Probation Service of Latvia 


to recognize to identify examples 

of good practice in probation agencies, 

to strengthen the resources 

and specific support mechanisms of 

the probation institutions to keep the 

resilience and wellness of employees 

and advert burnout, stress and 

trauma, in order to ensure the quality 

of the probation work 


Latvia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, UK 


Developing the Use of 

Technical Tools in Cross-Border 

Resettlement (E-Justice) 

Call: JLS/2010/JPEN/AG/EJ 

Lead partner: 

London Probation Trust 


in preparation for the Framework 

Decisions 2008/947/JHA & 

2008/909/JHA to trial and study 

the effectiveness of two specific 

technical tools: video-conference 

technology and touch screen facility 

to improve access to resettlement 

information for offenders 


UK, Latvia, the Netherlands 





Developing a Methodology to 

Collect Data on Community 

Sanctions and Measures and 

Attrition Rates in Europe 

(DECODEUR CSM) 

Call: JLS/2010/ISEC/FP/C1 

Lead partner: 

European Institute for Crime Prevention 

- HEUNI (FI) 


to design a common European statistical 

methodology for data on 

community sanctions and measures 

in a national context 


Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, 

Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, 

Spain, Turkey, UK, Albania 


Multi-Agency Prevention Of 

Violent Extremism (MAPOVE) 

Call: HOME/2010/ISEC/FP/C3 

Lead partner: 



through research, training and mapping 

it will seek to improve practice 

in the identification, prevention and 

management of offenders who are 

considered ‘of concern’ or ‘vulnerable’ 

to violent radicalisation (both 

in custody and on licence) 


UK, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands 


European Education in Forensic 

Social Work (submitted in February 

2011) 

Call: EAC/49/2010 

Lead partner: 

Avans University of Applied 

Sciences (NL) 


to create a common European 

approach in Forensic Social Work 

by developing comprehensive and 

complementary higher education 

teaching modules and modules for 

continuing education of probation 

officers 


the Netherlands, France, Romania, 

Turkey, UK 

Moreover CEP also contributed to 

inter-European professional cooperation 

via its involvement in five EUfunded 

project as a project partner. 

As such CEP actively took part in 

the steerage, organisation of training 

sessions, (expert) meetings and conferences 

(including presentations), 

and the dissemination of project 

results in the following projects: 

Name of the project: 

Reducing Influences that 

Radicalise Prisoners (RIRP) 

Project Code: 

JLS/2007/ISEC/FPA/C1/001 - RIRP 

Lead Partner: 



to identify good practice in reducing 

the influences that radicalise prisoners 

and develop a training programme 

for staff working in corrections 

with offenders vulnerable to 

radicalisation. 


UK, Germany, Spain 


Strengthening Transnational 

Approaches to Reduce 

Reoffending (STARR) 

Project Code: 

JLS/2007/ISEC/AG/ - STARR 

Lead Partner: 



to offer an EU-wide view on What 

Works in reducing offending, to 

identify and develop models of 

good practice, with an initial emphasis 

on 3 priority areas (youth crime, 

domestic violence, drugs& alcohol 

abuse), and to develop evidencebased 

processes for identifying and 

sharing good practice in future. 


UK, Bulgaria, France, Hungary 


Developing Offender Management 

In Corrections In Europe (DOMICE) 

Project Code: 

JLS/2008/JPEN/014 – DOMICE 




Lead Partner: 

National Offender Management 

Service (UK) 


to improve mutual knowledge and 

exchange best practice in integrated 

case management in all 

European prison and probation 

administrations. 


UK, Bulgaria, Denmark, the Netherlands, 

Spain 


Circles: Together for Safety 

Project Code: 

JLS/2008/DAP3/AG/1165 – Circles 

Lead Partner: 

Avans University of Applied 

Sciences (NL) 


to study the conditions for the successful 

introduction of an innovative 

and effective method to monitor sex 

offenders in the community 


the Netherlands, Belgium, UK 


Preparation of the practical 

implementation of the framework 

decision on the mutual recognition 

of probation measures 

Project Code: 

JLS/2009/JPEN/AG/4000000629 

Lead Partner: 

Federal Public Service Justice (B) 


to accompany the implementation 

of Framework Decision 2008/947/ 

JHA by providing means for the next 

EU Presidencies (particularly by 

means of the national fact sheets) to 

intensively follow up the last phases 

of implementing the Framework 

Decision. A second objective is to 

produce good practice with a view 

to setting up a standard method for 

accompanying the implementation 

of mutual recognition instruments in 

the future. 


Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, 

Luxemburg, Slovakia, Spain, UK 

European professional organisations active in criminal justice 

Early 2010 the CEP Board acknowledged 

that in order to further raise 

the profile of probation in the European 

criminal justice sector, and 

to streamline its actions in the 

European criminal justice sector, it 

also should seek cooperation with 

other professional organisations in 

the criminal justice sector working 

at a European level. In addition, 

by developing a coordinated 

approach to criminal justice with 

‘fellow’ organisations in different 

fields of the criminal justice sector, 

greater understanding of the key 

issues can be obtained, as well as 

synergy in the work of the different 

partners. 

In this regard CEP established links 

with the European Forum for Restorative 

Justice, which resulted in a 

first visit at the offices of the Forum 

in Leuven, in August. In the same 

way, CEP contacted Victim Support 

Europe, which is based in the 

same city as CEP. Victim Support 

Europe was visited also in August. 

Ever since, regular contact was held 

with the two organisations. 

Closely related to the previous point 

is the initiative that CEP developed 

in 2010 to enhance the establishment 

of a European professional 

organisation for the prison sector. 

Since probation and prison systems 

are closely related in all CEP Member 

States, CEP has always felt the 

need for an equivalent prison organisation 

on a European level, but until 

today, there is no professional European 

umbrella organisation for the 

prison sector. In order to promote 

the idea of a European organisation 

for the prison sector, a CEP delegation 

attended the annual conference 

of the International Prison and 

Corrections Association (ICPA), in 

October in Ghent. Since then, ICPA 

and CEP are in regular contact to 

further develop this idea, which led 

to a second meeting in The Hague 

in December. 




Individual countries 

CEP is also committed to raise the 

profile of probation on a national 

level, since this indirectly contributes 

to a higher profile of probation 

at a European level. CEP does 

this by taking part in governmental 

meetings, speak at conferences or 

other events in which probation can 

be promoted on a national level, 

either on the initiative of CEP, or 

on invitation or request of national 

probation services. In the scheme 

below all visits in the framework of 

this strategic action are listed. 

Visits of CEP Board Members, Secretary General (SG) and CEP staff with the aim to raise the profile of 

probation at a national level in 2010 

Greece February meeting with the Ministry of Justice, Transparency & Human Rights, in Athens 

visit by SG 

Belgium March speaker at a conference on the EU Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA, in Brussels 

visit by SG 

Portugal April speaker at an International Seminar on Human Rights and Prison and Probation 

Services activities in Torres Novas 

visit by the President 

Spain April speaker at the annual conference of the European Offender Management Forum 

(EOEF) in Valencia 

visit by SG 

Ireland April speaker at an event in Dublin on the development of probation in Europe and 

Ireland’s contribution in this 

visit by SG 

Italy May speaker at a conference on alternative sanctions in Europe in Bologna 

visit by SG 

Spain May speaker at the annual conference of the European Society of Criminology in Barcelona 

visit by SG 

Lithuania May visit to the Ministry of Justice, Prison and Probation Department; meeting with the 

Minister of Justice, in Vilnius 

visit by SG 

Serbia June speaker at an OSCE conference on alternative sanctions and the reduction of prison 

overcrowding 

visit by SG 

UK August meeting with NOMS (probation service for England&Wales) in London to find 

synergy in each other’s actions planned for the last half of 2010, and for 2011 

visit by SG 




Belgium October speaker at the annual conference of the ICPA in Ghent 

visit by the President, SG and Liaison Officer 

Russia October speaker at a conference on juvenile offenders in Saint Petersburg 

visit by SG 

France November members discussing the implications of the European Probation Rules of the 

Council of Europe at the annual national congress of the national syndicate for staff 

working in the prison and probation sector (SNEPAP-FSU), held in Macon 

visit by two Board Members 

France November meeting with the new Director General of the Service Pénitentiare of the French 

Ministry of Justice, in Paris 

visit by President, SG and Policy Support Officer 

Portugal December meeting with the new Director General of the Prison & Probation Service of 

Portugal, in Lisbon 

visit by President and SG 

Latvia December speaker at a conference in Riga on the development of offender management 

in Latvia; meeting with the Minister of Justice; special meeting on establishing a 

framework for regular contact of probation services in the Baltic States and to 

seek partnership in European projects 

visit by SG and Liaison Officer 

UK December meeting with NOMS (probation service for England&Wales) in London to find synergy 

in each other’s actions related to the support of the Stockholm programme, 

planned for 2011 

visit by Liaison Officer 

Planned 

To raise the profile of probation on a national level visits were planned to France, Greece, Italy 

and Lithuania 

For the same purpose reservations were made for 5 visits by the SG on an ad hoc base, and for 

2 visits by the Liaison Officer 

Executed 

Visits have been made to France, Greece, Italy and Lithuania 

The SG made 9 travels on an ad-hoc basis, to 8 different countries 

The Liaison Officer made 1 ad-hoc visit, so that the new Communications Officer could visit a CEP 

conference in order to get acquainted with the work of CEP 

Furthermore, the President and other CEP Board Members have made 5 travels on an ad-hoc basis 

to 3 different countries 


Internal organisation 

The operations described under 

the three chapters above constitute 

a large increase of activity as 

compared to previous years. This 

increased activity was made possible 

by the JPEN operating grant, 

awarded in June, which allowed 

CEP to increase its staff capacity. 

Shortly after being awarded the 

operating grant, CEP designed a 

plan for its staff expansion based 

on its considerations on: 

• the realization of the annual plan 

2010 

• the cost-effectiveness of the financial 

investment 

• the sustainability in relation to the 

operations of the organisation in the 

years to come. 

Meetings 

While the CEP staff coordinates 

and implements the actions of the 

organisation, the CEP Board sets 

out the policy on which the actions 

are based. This policy is in line with 

the strategy that is adopted by the 

CEP member organisations at the 

CEP General Assembly, which is 

being held every three years. 

For 2010, one General Assembly 

was planned in Malaga, in May. Two 

Board Meetings were planned: one 

in Sofia (January) and one in Dublin 

(October). 

In addition one Planning Group 

Meeting was planned, to be held 

in Utrecht in September. The Planning 

Group Meetings are used by 

the CEP President, the Vice-Presidents, 

the Secretary General and 

the Executive Officer to prepare the 

CEP Board Meetings. 

The General Assembly took place 

as planned, just as the Board Meeting 

in Sofia. In order to thoroughly 

prepare the General Assembly, the 

Board decided to have a meeting 

between the CEP President and 

Vice-Presidents with the Director 

General of the Dutch probation 

Service Reclassering Nederland, to 

discuss the process to achieve the 

financial independence of the CEP 

(February), for which CEP covered 

the interpretation costs. To further 

prepare the General Assembly the 

Board convened in an extra Board 

Meeting, which was held in Utrecht 

(March). In addition, the CEP Secretary 

General and the Project Assistant 

to the General Assembly travelled 

to Malaga to attend an extra 

Planning Group Meeting for the 

General Assembly. 

The Planning Group Meeting that 

was scheduled in Utrecht in September 

actually took place in Barcelona 

in August, at the office of the new 

CEP President. By these changes 

to the original plan CEP managed to 

economize on its travel and subsistence 

costs. For the planned Board 

Meeting in October, the original location 

Dublin was changed to Utrecht, 

so all the Board Members which 

were newly elected at the General 

Assembly could visit the CEP 

Offices. In order to work effectively 

as a Board, at this first meeting of 

the new Board the strategic plans 

for the period 2010-2013 were discussed 

and defined, as well as the 

roles and competences of the President, 

Vice-Presidents and the Board 

Members. Moreover, on the initiative 

of the new President, working 

groups were installed which each 

would develop policy proposals 

specific topics related to the development 

of its strategic goals (such 

as Conferences, Communications, 

European Institutions, Membership) 

and to the internal organization 

of CEP (Internal Organisation and 

Finances). This approach was well 

received by Board Members, who 

all showed a great enthusiasm to 

commence working for CEP. 



Planned 

To hold the 10 th General Assembly in Malaga and change the CEP statues on the basis of the 

decisions taken at the General Assembly 

To hold two Board Meetings, one in Sofia, one in Dublin 

To hold one Planning Group Meeting in Utrecht 

Executed 

The 10 th General Assembly was held as planned; the statutes have been changed by a 

certified notary 

Three Board Meetings have been held, one in Sofia, two in Utrecht 

One Planning Group Meeting has taken in place in Barcelona 

A meeting between the CEP President, Vice-Presidents and the Director General of the 

Dutch Probation Service Reclassering Nederland was held 

The Secretary General and the Project Assistant to the General Assembly attended an extra 

planning group meeting in Malaga 

External expertise 

In addition, CEP made use of external 

knowledge to further develop 

the services that CEP is providing 

to its member organisations, to 

strengthen the role of CEP in Europe 

and to increase the cost-effectiveness 

of the Offices. Probably the 

most important action related to hiring 

external expertise concerns the 

professionalization of financial management 

of the organisation. When 

CEP was awarded the operating 

grant, it thoroughly considered how 

CEP’s financial management up to 

operating grant reporting standards 

could be best guaranteed in the 

organisation, and at the most costefficient 

way. 

When drawing up the annual plan for 

2010, CEP thought that this could 

be best done by outsourcing its 

financial administration completely 

to financial specialists. However, 

after visiting other organisations 

that benefited from EU-funding (for 

instance the Financial Intelligence 

Unit Network in The Hague, and 

Victim Support Europe in Utrecht), 

CEP became convinced that in the 

long run it would better for its professional 

development to have this 

knowledge inside the organisation 

rather than outside, and being able 

to draw upon specialist knowledge 

from time to time when questions 

concerning the financial management 

occur. Moreover, this would be 

a cheaper option than subcontracting 

the complete financial administration 

to a third party. 

As such, CEP asked three specialists 

to give their quotation to review 

CEP’s current financial administration 

and advise on the needed 

changes to make it compliant with 

the operating grant regulations. 

Although it proved difficult to get 

a real price, CEP eventually gathered 

all the information on which it 

could make a considerate decision. 

In November CEP was reviewed by 

a financial specialist and in December 

advice was given how to professionalize 

the financial management 

of CEP. On the basis of the 

improved financial administration 

CEP drew up its annual account 

2010, which was approved in March 

2011 by an independent accountant. 

By hiring a consultant to support 

CEP staff in its capacity building to 

keep the financial administration 

in-house instead of outsourcing 

the financial administration completely, 

CEP economized significantly 

on the relevant reservations 

made in the operating grant budget. 



With regard to its development of 

strategic actions, CEP hired only two 

external consultants. Concerning 

its initiative to enhance the establishment 

of a European umbrella 

organisation for the prison sector 

mentioned on page 24 the new CEP 

Board decided to commission a 

consultant to advise on the best way 

to commence this process. On the 

basis of this advise CEP managed 

to spur the development within the 

International Corrections and Parole 

Association to establish a European 

professional prison organisation. 

The other external consultant hired 

by CEP was a specialist on European 

funding programmes. Although CEP 

had managed to secure an operating 

grant under the criminal justice 

funding mechanism of the European 

Union, operating grants are a temporary 

provision. Therefore these 

cannot be seen as a long-term, sustainable 

funding stream, due to their 

temporary nature. CEP therefore 

wanted to explore the possibilities 

to cover a part of its activities via EU 

action grants, by initiating and leading 

European projects. The external 

funding expert was asked to map the 

most relevant funding programmes 

in terms of the relevance to the fields 

of action of CEP, the level of financial 

support, and chances of success. 

Concerning the improvement of its 

services, CEP decided in September 

to have the implementation of its 

communications strategy reviewed 

by an external specialist. The findings 

of the communications consultant, 

based on interviews of CEP 

members and stakeholders, were 

overall positive. One typical quote 

was: “CEP has indeed come a long 

way within a comparatively short 

time, especially its achievement in 

building, contributing to and supporting 

a European policy of probation 

have been remarkable.” However, 

this communications audit also 

revealed some points which need 

the attention of CEP, such as the 

emphasis on the English language, 

on research in the Anglo-American 

context and on the Common Law 

inspired legal thinking (a “problem 

that is haunting every pan-European 

network - especially in a phase of 

expansion”). CEP will undertake 

actions in order to address the issues 

mentioned in the audit report. 

Planned 

To outsource the financial administration of CEP 

To hire external consultants to develop CEP strategic actions 

To audit one specific part of the operations of CEP by an external specialist 

To have the annual financial report 2010 controlled by a certified accountant 

Executed 

An external consultant was hired for capacity building at the CEP Offices to keep the financial 

administration in-house 

Two external consultants have been hired 

The communications of CEP were audited by an external specialist 

A certified accountant controlled the CEP financial report 2010 in March 2011 



Workstreams 

While the operating grant meant a 

great step forward in the professionalization 

of CEP by providing 

the necessary financial provisions, 

the procedures of the JPEN operating 

grant also contributed to its 

organisational development. Two 

important examples of this are the 

requirements to make an annual 

plan for the next year and an annual 

report on the previous year. Before 

its first operating grant application, 

CEP did not produce either of these 

documents. The practice of working 

with annual plans however proved 

to be highly useful and constructive 

for the organisation. In the CEP together with other base documents 

printed in the corporate style of CEP 

General Assembly in Malaga it was of the organisation. This made the 

even decided that the use of the dissemination of the annual report 

Annual Plan as the key element for and the base documents very easy, 

managing the organisation should as these memory sticks are easy to 

be reinforced, and should function carry and documents on the cards 

as an important tool of accountability 

towards our members. In external text writers were hired for 

easy to copy. In addition, as no 

this last regard it was decided to the writing of the annual report, CEP 

regularly publish progress reports could order a higher number of copies 

that initially planned. 

on the members section of the 

CEP website, based on the actions 

mentioned in the annual plan. 

The publication of the Annual Report 

also turned out to be very useful for 

the accountability of CEP. For reasons 

of cost-effectiveness it was 

decided to publish the annual report 

2009 in digital format only. It was put 

on a credit card-like memory stick 

Planned To publish an annual report (300 digital copies) 

Executed An annual report was produced in digital format 

(500 copies on memory stick) 

Equipment 

The purchase of equipment for the 

Offices was mainly guided by the 

principles of optimizing the (cost-) 

efficiency of the supporting staff. 

A more intelligent use of business 

ICT hardware and software could 

contribute to streamlining the work 

processes to a large extent. Therefore 

a computer server was acquired, 

which made it possible to set up a 

business network. The purchase of a 

laptop makes it easier for the Executive 

Officer to work at home or while 

being abroad. Small investments in 

a good videoconferencing micro- 



phone allows a better use of Skype. 

By purchasing software as Adobe 

Acrobat and Photoshop, CEP is able 

to do imaging work (e.g. for website 

publications or printed matter) inhouse. 

It was chosen to work with 

older versions of these programmes 

as these are considerably cheaper 

than the up-to-date versions, while 

still offering the essential imaging 

possibilities. 

Planned 

Executed 

To purchase and install a computer server 

To purchase computer equipment for one work station 

To purchase a videoconference microphone 

To purchase Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop 

To computer server has been installed in September 

One laptop and necessary equipment (hardware and 

software) have been bought to increase mobility of staff 

A videoconference microphone was acquired 

Both Adobe software programmes have been purchased 


Income and expenditure 

CONFÉRENCE PERMANENTE EUROPÉENNE DE LA PROBATION - CEP 

Annual Account 2010 

Expenses 2010 Receipts 2010 

Salary € 274.097 Operating Grant € 97.811 

Travel costs € 27.450 Subscriptions € 297.059 

Equipment € 24.542 Interest € 3.907 

Electronic Monitoring 2009 € - 

Contribution Spain and Portugal for 

GA2011 

€ 24.168 

Bursaries € 3.500 Publication Probation in Europe € 4.173 

Publications and dissemination € 54.217 Workshops and seminars € 2 859 

Other costs € 32.325 

Other costs beyond the OG € 5.038 

Surplus € 8.808 

Total € 429.977 Total € 429.977 


Notes to the financial report 

General 

Conférence Permanente Européenne 

de la Probation was incorporated at 

24 June 1982, having its legal seat 

in Utrecht. The financial statements 

have been prepared in accordance 

with the Guideline for annual reporting 

640 ‘Not-for-profit organisations’ 

of the Dutch Accounting Standards 

Board. The financial statements 

were prepared in March 2011. 

The receipts and the expenses of 

the CEP, as well as the related documents 

for the year 2010 have been 

audited by independent auditors: 

Mr. Patrick Madigou (France) and 

Mr. Peter Reckling, (Germany). 

The audit did not present any discrepancy 

that would prevent the 

Board discharging its responsibility 

with regard to the finances. 

In addition, the annual account 2010 

was audited by a certified accountant 

from Ernst&Young Accountants 

LLP. On 4 April 2011 CEP annual 

account 2010 was approved. 

Summary of significant accounting policies: 

Translation of foreign 

currencies 

Transactions arising in foreign currencies 

are translated into the local 

currency at the exchange rate at the 

date of the transaction. At year-end, 

assets and liabilities denominated 

in foreign currencies are translated 

at the year-end rates of exchange. 

The resulting net translation gains 

or losses are recognized in the profit 

and loss account. 

Valuation 

Assets and liabilities are shown at 

the amounts at which they were 

acquired or incurred, unless stated 

otherwise. 

Receivables 

Receivables are stated net of an 

allowance for doubtful accounts. 

Other assets and liabilities 

All other assets and liabilities are 

valued at nominal value. 

Income and expenses 

Expenses are determined on the 

basis of the valuation policies set 

out above. Profits are recognized 

in the year in which the services are 

rendered. Losses are taken in the 

year in which they are foreseeable. 

Employee data 

Due to the long term sick leave of 

the Executive Officer and the attainment 

of the Operating Grant, temporary 

staff was employed, which 

was partly financed by Reclassering 

Nederland. All personnel is engaged 

from Reclassering Nederland. The 

number of engaged personnel was 

6,78 FTE at the end of 2010 (2009: 

2,3). 


Postal address: P.O. Box 8215, 3503 RE Utrecht, The Netherlands 

Offices: Vivaldiplantsoen 200, 3533 JE Utrecht, The Netherlands 

Tel: +31-(0)30-232 4900 Fax: +31-(0)30-232 4950 

Email: secr@cep-probation.org Website: www.cep-probation.org 

CEP is supported by the Directorate-General Justice of the European Union

ANNUAL REPORT - CEP, the European Organisation for Probation

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