Member states bid to host European Police College

Home affairs ministers may make their choice on Tuesday (8 October).

Seven member states of the European Union are bidding to become the host country for the European Police College – a matter that could be decided at next week’s meeting of justice and home affairs ministers.

Such a decision is opposed by the European Commission, which has been arguing that the police college (known by the acronym Cepol) should be merged with Europol, the EU’s police co-operation agency in The Hague. But most member states are opposed to merging the two, so the Council is proceeding on the assumption that it will remain a separate EU agency.

Cepol has 40 permanent staff and is currently based in Bramshill, south-west of London, but the British government has decided to sell the site, meaning that the agency must be relocated.

Seven member states have put in bids to host Cepol: Italy (Rome), Greece (Veria), Spain (Avila), Ireland (Templemore), Hungary (Budapest) and Finland (Tampere), as well as the Netherlands, which already hosts Europol. The home affairs ministers may make their choice on Tuesday (8 October).

A spokesman for Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, said: “The Commission proposed a merger of Europol and Cepol, and that proposal still stands.” He said: “Any decision on a possible alternative to that, temporary or permanent, is for the Council.”

The home affairs ministers will also hear updates on the situation of refugees from Syria, following announcements by Sweden that it would offer permanent residency to all Syrians currently in the country, and by Germany that it would admit some 5,000 Syrian refugees, primarily from Lebanon. They will also discuss alleged benefits tourism between the EU’s member states, and meet their counterparts from the countries of the Eastern Partnership.

On the first day of the council, on Monday (7 October), justice ministers will debate the overhaul of the EU’s data protection regime, the most sweeping piece of legislation currently pending before the Council and the European Parliament. They will focus on the one-stop-shop mechanism, under which a single national data protection authority in the EU is in charge of taking decisions against a particular company. The Parliament’s civil-liberties committee, which takes the lead on the draft regulation, is expected to vote on its version of the legislation on 21 October, paving the way for negotiations with the Council.

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