SPEAKING NOTES “THE EU’S ROLE IN THE WESTERN BALKANS”,
Stockholm, 19 February 2015
My name is Angelo Tancredi and I am Colonel of the Italian State Police.
I have been serving in the Italian Traffic Police for 23 years and since November 2013 I have joined PAMECA IVproject as Long Term Expert for Traffic Policing and General Patrol.
Consolidation of law enforcement capacities in Albania known as PAMECA IV, is a technical assistance project funded by the European Union under IPA programme.
PAMECA IV is implemented by the Government of Italy as the main partner in consortium with Ministries of Interior of France, Austria and Hungary.
PAMECA IV started in July 2013. Its overall objective is to bring the law enforcement capacities of Albanian institutions closer to EU standards in the field of policing; and to provide trust, safety and a secure environment to Albanian citizens. The project will run until October 2016.
Albanian citizens and government are the final beneficiaries of the project, but the direct beneficiaries of PAMECA IV are the Albanian State Police (ASP), the General Prosecution Office (GPO) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI).
Secondary beneficiaries include the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Education, the Ombudsman, Financial Investigation Unit, Customs and Tax authorities etc.
For the delivery of activities, PAMECA IV has actively requested the cooperation of EU agencies -such as EUROPOL, FRONTEX, EUROJUST, FRA (Fundamental Rights Agency), CEPOL, -to provide whenever possible custom-made assistance through their expertise and experience.
This is done in order to ensure the adoption by the Albanian beneficiaries of legal and operational standards based on EU Acquis and EU Member States best practices in the area of Justice and Home Affairs, thus bringing Albania’s law enforcement up to the EU standards.
PAMECA IV also closely cooperates and coordinates action with other EU and international stakeholders in order to avoid overlapping and create synergies.
Project Components
EU support PAMECA IV project is organised into six activity areas corresponding to six components:
- Structure, Organization, Human Resources, Logistics, Budgeting of Police
- Organised Crime, Serious Crimes and Anti-corruption Investigations
- Human Rights and Community Policing
- General Patrol and Traffic Policing
- Integrated Border Management (IBM)
- Strategic Advice to the Minister of Interior and ASP General Director
PAMECA IV project is designed to support and assist key Albanian law enforcement agencies, in particular Police and Prosecution in order to bring their performance closer to EU standards.
In practical terms, PAMECA IV assistance -defined in concrete outputs, linked to the expected result for each component – consists in a mix of activities including: i) Strategic advice, ii) Legal reviews and opinions, iii) Trainings, iv) Handbooks, v) Seminars, vi) Workshops, and vii) Study visits in EU Member States with structures best fitting the needs of Albanian beneficiaries.
The methodology applied by PAMECA IV consists of six steps.
An initial gap analysis for each planned activity is performed, followed -as a second step-by identification of critical issues.
Then, advisory support/implementing assistance is provided, followed bymonitoring of absorption capacities.
Mix activities are delivered -as a fifth step- and at the end, a review of all the steps completes the assistance cycle.
I would like to briefly describe the components and the main outputs per each component.
Component 1 “Structure, Organization, Human Resources, Logistics, Budgeting of the ASP” has as main aim to assist Police to improve organisational and administrative capacities to plan and manage human, financial and technical resources more effectively and efficiently.
The main activities under this Component include inter alia support for improving HR management practices, restructuring of Police, review of curricula, budget planning and procurement support, etc.
PAMECA IV has dedicated particular efforts and resources on the ongoing Police restructuring process, due to the strategic importance of the process.
Support is provided to the Working Groups established to reform Albanian State Police, both at strategic and technical level.
Comprehensive reviews, analysis and comments on 5 draft laws for police reform approved by the Albanian Parliament are provided against EU Acquis and best practices.
Assistance is also provided with the transposition of the relevant EU Acquisand drafting of the relevant laws. PAMECA IV has contributed to ensure horizontal cooperation between the Police departments and among Police and Ministry of Interior.
PAMECA IV played a facilitating role to fully exploit the possibilities arising from the Exchange Programme of CEPOL, thus increasing the level of specialised training of ASP and boost the cooperation with CEPOL.
Preliminary Assessment of Police education curricula against CEPOL ‘Common Curricula” including recommendations was produced and the entire corpus of CEPOL Common Curricula is made available.
Assistance is provided regarding various aspects of budget planning process and procurement procedures.
Under Component 2 “Organised Crime, Serious Crimes and Anti-corruption Investigations” the aim of the activities is to enhance the investigative capacities and cooperation between Police and Prosecution, including other relevant agencies, in the fight against organised and serious crimes and corruption.
Assessment reports and recommendations on the legal packagefor enhancing the fight against corruption, on Albanian Anti-mafia Law and on the legal framework of Money Laundering, are provided.
PAMECA IV is providing support to enhance the investigation capacity (of PoliceProsecution) in the fight against money laundering, narcotics, Trafficking of Human Beings (THB), trafficking of weapons, cybercrime and environmental crimes in order to bring them in line with EU Acquis.
Several training sessions and related assessment reports, case studies, high level conference, study visits are conducted regarding coordination between judicial police and prosecutors, fighting organised crime, confiscation of assets of illicit origin, cybercrime, Trafficking of Human Beings, legal framework of storage and destruction of seized narcotics, environmental crime, special means of investigation, intelligence led policing etc.
Special support was provided during the Europol-led “Policy Cycle” Joint Police Operation “Europe-2013”, carried out from 25 to 28 September 2013, targeting vehicles stolen inEU Member States and trafficked to Western Balkans.
This was the first police operation between EU Member States, EU Agencies, Interpol and Western Balkan countries, including Albania.
Regarding Component 3 Human Rights and Community Policing, the aim of the activities is to strengthen Human Rights protection and Community Policing.
The main activities include support to protect the rights of detainees, in particular, vulnerable persons and support for community policing in cooperation with other projects such as Swedish Assistance to Community Policing.
PAMECA IV is providing proactive support to human rights protection and antidiscrimination, prevention of ill treatment/torture of persons deprived of their liberty-with a special focus on protection of vulnerable groups: juveniles, women, ethnic and sexual minorities, persons with disabilities.
In cooperation with the Civil Society Organisations, training sessions on the rights of persons held in police custody are delivered to relevant police personnel in Regional Police Directorates across the country.
In the area of community policing, PAMECA IV has successfully launched a pilot School-Social service-Police (SSP) partnership in Tirana, modelled on SSP partnership -a best practice SSP from Denmark.
Under Component 4‘General Patrol and Traffic Policing’the aim of the activities is to improve the ASP General Patrol services and Traffic Policing.
The main activities include support for strategic management of traffic policing, consistent implementation of traffic laws, professional training through practical exercise and actual operations, traffic education, road safety, etc.
Continuous advice and support is given to the General Directorate of Traffic Police on management, structure andoperational practice of traffic policing in line with EU best practices.TISPOL-model guidelines for traffic police operations are being implemented.
Support is provided to Tirana Regional Police Directorate on awareness-raising campaign regarding traffic regulation modelled on EU ICARUS project.
A country wide awareness campaign on road safety is launched in cooperation with Albanian Traffic Police Directorate.
PAMECA IV is assisting Police in planning the new Operational Room of Tirana Regional Police Directorate consistent with the EU standards.
Support is also provided to traffic police to prepare the Twitter initiative in Tirana which will allow the citizen to better interact with police.
PAMECA IV activities under Component 5. Integrated Border Management aim at fostering the police capacities in this area. They include support to improve institutional, legislative and infrastructure framework, strategic management, etc.
PAMECA IV was engaged in the discussions of the National Strategy on Integrated Border Management and the Action Plan 2014-2020,
In addition analysis of the Law on State Border Control and Surveillance regarding its compliance with the relevant EU- and Schengen Acquis was conducted and submitted to the beneficiary.
Trainings on relevant topics are delivered.
Expert opinion on the planned construction of the Joint Border Crossing Points with neighbouring countries is delivered and several on field visits are conducted. Based on the results of those visits, opinion on equipment and insfrastructure needs is delivered;
Under Component 6 Strategic Advice to the Minister of Interior and to General Director of Albanian State Police, PAMECA IV aims to support the Ministry and Police leadership in translating policy decisions into strategic and operational plans consistent with EU Acquis and best practices in the area of Justice and Home Affairs.
Activities conducted by PAMECA IV include assessments of the draft structure of the Ministry of Interior, of the draft laws proposed for the State Police reforms against the background of EU Acquis and best practices in the area.
PAMECA IV has also assisted the Ministry in performing a preliminary review to identify the training needs of its employees.
Support is also provided to Police for drafting strategic documents (strategy, action plan, policy documents etc.)
In order to exploit the benefits of the new cooperation agreement between Albania and Europol, signed on 9 December 2013, PAMECA IV organised and delivered training on information analysis and exchange vis-à-vis Europol.
PAMECA IV has also provided support to Ministry of Interior and Policeregarding the development of project ideas for financial assistance from dedicated EU instruments such as TAIEX.
Specific advice and support has been provided to Ministry of Interior and Police on the implementation of 112 unified emergency call number.
Advisory support has also been provided for sensitive police operations in cooperation with other international partners-such as Italian Guardia di Finanza- regarding the implementation of airborne surveillance for the cannabis plantations in the country.
Next Steps
PAMECA IV will continue providing advisory support at strategic level, supporting the working groups to finalise the legal reforms undertaken and their implementation, and supporting Albanian State Police in the management of human and logistic resources.
Support will also be provided regarding cooperation between prosecutor and judicial police, reform of the Criminal Procedure Code, and other relevant legislative reviews.
Different trainings will be delivered on relevant topics under each component.