The meeting was attended by Nevenka Tomovič, Chair of the CEPOL Governing Board, her associates from the European Police College, 76 representatives of European police education and training institutions from EU Member States and associated countries, two representatives from the Commission and the Head of the Association of the European Police Colleges.
At the meeting, Nevenka Tomovič expressed satisfaction with the work of the Governing Board: “During our Presidency, the draft budget and the 2009 activity programme have been successfully adopted; in line with the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency, a conference on police cooperation with Western Balkan countries in education and training was organised, and negotiations were held with the Russian Federation on continued cooperation. On Slovenia’s initiative, several documents which have a significant impact on CEPOL activities in future were also adopted. In short, we achieved everything we set out to achieve.”
She added that the Slovenian initiative of the movement of knowledge, the 'fifth freedom', will be further promoted by incoming presidencies.
The documents adopted include, in particular: the vision for CEPOL and its mission; the training strategy detailing how training is understood, experienced and carried out in CEPOL; the vision for the area of e-learning; and also the CEPOL policy of action in the area of relations with non-member countries and external institutions, including the private sector.
The procedure for reporting on activities is quite complex and defines in detail the preparation of the annual financial statement and the annual activity report, in which the Governing Board and its Director play key roles. Specifically, by 1 July of the current year, the Director must submit the final activity report for the previous year, accompanied by the opinion of the Governing Board, to the European Commission, the Court of Auditors, the European Parliament and the EU Council.
CEPOL’s final activity report for 2007, which was discussed for the first time at this meeting and which will be ultimately adopted under the French Presidency, shows that quite a lot work has already been done: there were 85 different training events, which were attended by 1900 police officers from all Member States (550 more than in 2006) and in which 700 trainers participated. Assessment of the activities shows a high level of participant satisfaction with training courses.
The same satisfaction with the results of activities was also expressed by the Director of CEPOL, Ulf Goeransson: “I am very satisfied with our achievements, including those that are less visible. I must commend the work of the Secretariat and the Governing Board, which since last year, have made great efforts to eliminate the initial difficulties experienced by CEPOL as a European agency.”
At this, the second meeting held during Slovenia’s EU Presidency and twelfth overall meeting of the CEPOL Governing Board, the Board, as per the agenda, also discussed the Commission communication ‘European Agencies – The way forward’. Based on this document, the work of a number of agencies (including CEPOL) should be assessed and, if necessary, common standards for their operation determined. In addition, administrative procedures should be simplified, where feasible and where such procedures unnecessarily burden the operation of agencies, particularly the smaller ones.
At the end of the meeting, France, the next presiding country, presented its own priorities.
