Police cooperation in the Union: common operational activities, information, training and exchanges of officials

OBJECTIVE: to establish a system of police cooperation, operational within the EU. CONTENT: with regulation of police cooperation already being updated and completed apace, this draft joint action, which is based on Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union, proposes a series of concrete measures in this area in order to further strengthen the security of Member States. In this respect, the draft joint action considers that police cooperation should increasingly consist of common operational activities. As a result, in coordination with current forms of cooperation (EUROPOL and CIREFI), the proposal involves a targeted realisation of projects in support of cooperation between police forces, without compromising sovereignty. Within this framework, the draft joint action proposes the following measures: - a permanent exchange of information in the main areas of the fight against crime in the Member States, as well as in important projects in the field of policing and which have implications on other Member States? interests in terms of security; - a coordinated fight against international crime carried out through networks; - training of teams of investigators/inspectors and mixed patrols (the officials despatched having the status of liaison officers without the power of execution); - exchanges of police officials from all countries in the shape of lengthy training courses; - continuing training sessions as well as common intervention exercises; - harmonisation of communication systems between the police forces of the Member States. In order that these themes and others be tackled in an appropriate manner, provision is made for the establishment of an institutional framework which incorporates the needs of police analysis and concrete coordination activities (with the participation exclusively of experts), in order to guarantee a sufficient level of confidentiality. Rather than establishing a new ?ad hoc? working group for these tasks, it is instead proposed that the current ?police cooperation? working group within the Council be used. This group will meet whenever needed and will be made up of high-level police officials from the Member States. The equivalent officials from the applicant countries may also attend certain of these meetings as observers.�