Activities of Sonia ALFANO related to 2013/0812(COD)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the draft regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision 2005/681/JHA establishing the European Police College (CEPOL) PDF (191 KB) DOC (289 KB)
Amendments (9)
Amendment 4 #
Draft legislative resolution
Citation 4
Citation 4
Amendment 10 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 2
Recital 2
(2) By letters of 12 December 2012 and 8 February 2013, the United Kingdom, against its commitment and legal obligation as per Council Decision 2005/681/JHA and the Headquarters Agreement concluded between the United Kingdom and CEPOL on 30 December 2004, informed CEPOL that it no longer wishes to host the seat on its territory. Apart from hosting CEPOL, Bramshill also hosts a national police training site of the National Policing Improvement Agency which the United Kingdom decided to replace by a new College of Policing to be located elsewhere. The United Kingdom has therefore decided to close the national police training site at Bramshill and to sell the site indicating that the related costs were high and no alternative business model to run the site had emerged.
Amendment 13 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3
Recital 3
(3) In view of this situation, on 8 October 2013, the representatives of the Governments of the Member States agreed by common accord on arrangements to host CEPOL according to which CEPOL will be hosted in Budapest as soon as it moves from Bramshill. This agreement should be incorporated in Council Decision 2005/681/JHAdecision was taken, without any prior consultation with the European Commission and the European Parliament, following a specific voting arrangement proposed by the Presidency and accepted by the Member States, under the item "Provisional arrangements to host CEPOL" during the JHA Council informal lunch on 8 October 2013. Seven applications had been submitted further to the Council Presidency's call in July 2013 for applications to provisionally host the European Police College until a long- term solution for the future of the Agency could be found. The Member States submitting candidatures were Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, Hungary, The Netherlands and Finland. Finland subsequently withdrew its application. The political agreement was confirmed at the JHA Council meeting on the same day, 8 October 2013.
Amendment 17 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3 a (new)
Recital 3 a (new)
(3a) In its proposal for a Regulation on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation and Training (Europol) and repealing Decisions 2009/371/JHA and 2005/681/JHA, published on 27 March 2013, the European Commission estimated that the merging of Europol and CEPOL into a single agency, situated at the current headquarters of Europol in The Hague would create important synergies and efficiency gains, assessing savings at the level of €17.2 million over the period 2015-2020 and 14 full time staff equivalent (FTE).
Amendment 19 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3 b (new)
Recital 3 b (new)
(3b) Given the links between the tasks of Europol and CEPOL, a close cooperation between the two agencies would enhance the effectiveness of operational activity, the relevance of training and the efficiency of Union police cooperation. A relocated seat for CEPOL should therefore be in proximity of Europol seat, in order strengthen the links and create synergies between the two fields of the Agencies. Contacts between the operational and the training staff would help identify training needs, thus increasing the relevance and focus of EU training, to the benefit of EU police cooperation overall.
Amendment 20 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3 c (new)
Recital 3 c (new)
(3c) The European Commission had estimated that the relocation of around 40 staff from CEPOL's current site in Bramshill, UK, to the Europol site in The Hague, the Netherlands, is expected to result in limited one-off costs, estimated at €30 000. Potential savings and synergies or efficiency gains are particularly important in an economic context where national and EU resources are scarce and where resources to strengthen EU law enforcement training might not otherwise be available.
Amendment 21 #
Draft regulation
Recital 3 d (new)
Recital 3 d (new)
(3d) As underlined by the European Commission, the draft Regulation amending the CEPOL Decision does not refer to the provisional relocation of the seat of CEPOL, but goes much further, as it is in direct opposition to the Commission's proposal for the Europol Regulation, including the merger of CEPOL into Europol, which has been and remains on the table since 27 March 2013.
Amendment 22 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3 e (new)
Recital 3 e (new)
(3e) The relocation of CEPOL as proposed does not achieve the functional and operational reform that would match the goals of rationalisation and operational improvement for agencies. It has adverse budgetary effects, as it does not achieve functional synergies and cost savings. It is consequently not in line with the recommendations set out in the Common Approach on decentralised agencies endorsed by the 3 Institutions.
Amendment 28 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1
Council Decision 2005/681/JHA
Article 4
Article 4
The seat of CEPOL shall be in Budapest, HungaryThe Hague, The Netherlands.