|
On
the 2004 Spring Meeting of the EuroCOP Committee two new organisations
entered the European Confederation of Police: With the Panhellenic
Federation of the Police from Greece and SIULP from Italy EuroCOP grows
considerably in size, now representing over 600.000 police officers in
Europe.
After
welcoming the new members the EuroCOP Committee laid the groundwork for
the next working year by agreeing on a number of core issues that will be
covered in working groups and conference series: The successful project on
Violence against Polcie officers will be followed up by a Working Group
that will deal with health and safety standards for police officers, while
another working group will focus on the social conditions of police
officers in Europe. In addition the EuroCOP Committee set the frame for a
series of conferences that will focus on the consequences of the EU
enlargement for policing.
However
the main political issues debated at the committee meeting were the
terrorist bombings that had taken place in Madrid just a week earlier.
After
observing a minute of silence to honour the victims of the Madrid bombings
the Committee discussed the implications of the attacks for police
cooperation in Europe. Instead of joining the public debate about new
measures that needed to be adopted the EuroCOP Committee pointed towards
the most urgent issue in the fight against terrorism: The delay in the
implementation of already agreed measures.
In
a discussion with Members from all major fractions of the European
Parliament the representatives of EuroCOP member organisations made it
clear that from their perspective the fight against terrorism can only be
won if governments actually implement measures that have been already
agreed instead of piling new measures on to of them. The Committee
specifically highlighted the following examples of a gap between words and
action in the fight against terrorism:
-
When
the European Arrest Warrant was to enter into force on 1 January 2004,
only a few of the 14 countries that had agreed to introduce the
European Arrest warrant had transferred it into national legislation.
-
Agreements
on close cooperation between Europol and national law enforcement
bodies are not working in all cases.
-
Despite
numerous initiatives to harmonise important rules on the use of
evidence in court proceedings nothing has happened to date to actually
achieve progress on these important practical issues
EuroCOP
Committee members made it clear in a resolution delivered to the Council
of Ministers that the fight against terrorism can only be won if decisions
taken on the European level are fully implemented and if national forces
are funded and equipped appropriately to enable them to cope with
additional tasks.
|
