Europe is the sum of its parts. The same goes for union organisation and rights for the police in Europe. 

Representation and participation exists more or less in some form in all European countries, but the structure, power and rights vary from country to country.

These differences were discussed and debated in Rome in October at the conference entitled "Information and consultation rights of police workers in Europe". 

"Once you hear about what the situation looks like in other countries you might get an idea on how to improve or change matters in your own country," President of EuroCOP Heinz Kiefer said.

All in all 18 European Police Unions took part of the study, from Finland to the Spanish Catalunya Police.

From this study it becomes evident that the models in each country are different and are influenced by cultural tradition, different strategies and the strength the national police unions have.

Heinz Kiefer, EuroCOP President

One of the propositions made at the conference, initiated from one of the speakers, Frank Richter of the German Police Union, GdP, was the importance to form common ground rules for all police unions, as a base for future discussions.

"We should have a common standard, which is the same everywhere and then we could talk together about how to improve them." 

Another conclusion made, was that even if there are set legal rules to go by, in practise these aren't always followed.

Frank Richter, GdP

This is for instance the case in Spain, where collective bargaining exist only by law but not in practise, which emphasizes the importance of a police union, so Angela Bosch, representative from SPC, Catalunya, Spain, founded in 1985:

"It is our job to improve the working conditions for our colleagues and we cannot forget this."

Olivier Prevosto, Johanna Bundi VSPB; 
Angels Bosch, SPC

Oronzo Cosi and Alessandro Pisaniello Siulp;
Jan Schonkeren and Manuel Lopez, ExCom EuroCOP

Another young union, Slovenian PSS, founded in 1990, was one of the unions that presented itself and its standards on information and consultation rights at the conference. 

Representative Radivoij Urosevic summarized its past development:

"We have worked hard to achieve better working conditions for people in the public sector."

Radivoij Urosevic, PSS - Slovenia