COUNCIL OF Brussels, 8 May 2003 THE EUROPEAN UNION P U BLIC 8285/2/03 REV 2 LIMITE FRONT 38 COMIX 232 NOTE from: Austrian and Swedish delegations to: Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum Subject: REPORT - Core curriculum for border guard training Delegations will find attached the final report of the Project on core curriculum for border guard training. _________________ 8285/2/03 REV 2 EB/av 1 DG H I EN Conseil UE ANNEX Implementation of the Plan for the Management of the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union "CORE CURRICULUM" PROJECT Final Report 1. Objective of the project The Seville European Council of 21-22 June 2002 decided on the elaboration of a core curriculum for border guard training (conclusion No 32) on the basis of the Plan for the management of the external borders of the Member States of the European Union (see 10019/02 FRONT 58 COMIX 398). Item 39 of the Plan for the management stipulates the following: "A common standard for border guard training is needed." Items 102 and 103 foresee the following: "With the aim of gradually reducing quantitative and qualitative disparities that are likely to generate security distortions at the external borders, following measures are to be taken in the short-term: • Establishment of a common syllabus for the training of border guard officers and their mid-level management, • Organisation of regular advanced training courses, • Special attention to be paid to language training, 8285/2/03 REV 2 EB/av 2 ANNEX DG H I EN • Basic knowledge of the tasks and the legal status of the border guard officers of other member countries, • Training for border guard officers with respect to the rights of and the protection of asylum seekers.” Item 104 finally mentions : "The external borders practitioners Common Unit could be given the task of designing a common core curriculum for training border guards, based on the national training institute network and giving recommendations, standards and rules to the Member States for efficient and coherent recruitment.” On the basis of the conclusion of the Seville European Council, both Sweden and Austria volunteered to tackle the question of enhanced cooperation in the training sector and submitted a joint project proposal to set up a Common Core Curriculum together with an implementation proposal. The project proposal was adopted by the "Common Unit of Border Guard Practitioners" (SCIFA+) at its meeting on 22 July 2002. 2. Brief description of the project From the very beginning on, it was clear among the project team that the expected results should not only be elaborated on the basis of common facts available within the border management units, but that scientific guidance should also be striven for. Therefore, the implementation of the entire project was accompanied by the Institute for Conflict Research and the Institute for Sociology of Law and Criminology in Vienna. Content of the core curriculum (see Annex 3) The study group, consisting of the participants listed under point 3, agreed upon the content of eight main training fields: • Human resources development • International legislation • National legislation • Operational training 8285/2/03 REV 2 EB/av 3 ANNEX DG H I EN • Criminalistics/Criminology • Information technology • Applied working methods • Administration. For each of these training fields, a time frame of training lessons, training method and level of competence to be achieved are recommended - differentiating between three categories of officers due to the differing structures of the national border services. The three different levels of officers are as follows: First-level officer = border guard not authorised to take coercive measures Second-level officer = border guard authorised to take coercive measures Mid-level officer = leader of a border guard team, with the right to make decisions on behalf of and for his team. Implementation proposal Regarding the proposal for implementation, see point 4 below. 3. Participating Member States, candidate countries and observers Apart from the submission of national curricula and replies to the questionnaires, the following Member States of the European Union and Schengen partner States participated in the study group workshops: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The following acceding and candidate countries also participated in the study group workshops: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey. 8285/2/03 REV 2 EB/av 4 ANNEX DG H I EN The elaboration of the core curriculum and its implementation proposal was also accompanied by the following observers : European Commission, DCAF, UNHCR, CEPOL and MEPA. 4. Phases of implementation 4.1 Project steps taken According to the project plan adopted by SCIFA+, the following steps were taken: • distribution of questionnaires on the possible structure of a future core curriculum and call for the submission of the respective national curricula of the Member States, including Norway and Iceland, in October 2002 (feedback rate: 87%); • evaluation of the replies and setting-up of a first draft core curriculum in December 2002 and January 2003; • study visits to France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland taking place in February 2003 in order to clarify questions outstanding regarding issues concerning training standards and organisational matters; • the final report was drafted during two study group meetings in Austria and Sweden with the participation of the Member States, Schengen partner States, the acceding and candidate countries, the European Commission, CEPOL, MEPA, DCAF and the UNHCR, in March and April 2003. 4.2 Proposal for the implementation of the Core Curriculum Regarding the implementation proposal, further steps according to the necessary decisions of the proper fora for both the legal and the practical implementations are to be taken: 4.2.1 National implementation The core curriculum is to be implemented independently by each country on its own. 8285/2/03 REV 2 EB/av 5 ANNEX DG H I EN 4.2.2 Legal implementation Irrespective of the national responsibility for the implementation of the core curriculum, the delegates participating in the study group meetings agreed upon that the core curriculum shall be binding. Since border control has its legal basis in the first pillar and - at least partly - in several fields of the operational cooperation in the third pillar, a discussion should take place in the proper fora on the correct legal basis and legal form. The delegates participating in the study group meetings agreed upon that this could be done in the course of the re-codification of the Common Manual, which is to receive the status of a regulation. The pertinent initiative for this solution would have to be taken by the European Commission. 4.2.3 Practical implementation at European level Pursuant to Article 7 of the Schengen Convention, the contracting parties assist each other with a view to the effective implementation of checks and surveillance and promote standard basic and further training of officers manning checkpoints. To close the gap between national responsibility and the aim of the core curriculum to reach a practical common training standard at European level, agreement was reached between all participants that this should be guaranteed by specific Quality Assurance Measures (QAM): • ADVICE (to provide the possibility to consult experts for advice, an "experts' hotline" should be established during the implementation process). • SYSTEM MONITORING (therefore, training objectives are to be defined and operationalised, scores are to be defined, data should be collected by the Member States themselves; the whole data material has to be anonymised for the analysis and interpretation of the data material; on this basis, a report should be prepared - and if necessary - modification procedures, training activities or other adequate measures should be proposed; the best practices or methods should be published in an anonymised way; thus, each country would be enabled to judge its status as well as its development; at the same time, fields of problems concerning the implementation and the need for action can be identified as well). 8285/2/03 REV 2 EB/av 6 ANNEX DG H I EN • ADAPTATION (if goals are not reached and if procedures are identified for failure, the improvement of the content, of the teaching method or of the evaluation method - to be done on the basis of common agreement between all partners - could be necessary). • MULTIPLIER TRAINING (multiplier training is one possibility to reach a uniform training standard). 4.2.3.1 Organisational structure Apart from Quality Assurance Measures, the study group also had to decide upon the proposal for the "organisational structure" for the implementation of the core curriculum. There were two main approaches for the decision upon the organisational structure: • a Central European Border Service Academy, • a Common Integrated Unit. Taking into account the several disadvantages of a Central European Border Service Academy (lack of infrastructure, available staff and logistics in the Member States were not used, linguistic difficulties, enormous travelling costs), common agreement was reached between all partners that all training activities concerning basic training of the three categories of officers shall, as a rule, be organised and carried out by Member States at national level in their own responsibility and - for the performance of the supplementary tasks mentioned above (advice, system monitoring, adaptation and multiplier training) - a Common Integrated Unit (CIU) , composed of experts of all participating countries and supported by National Management Teams (NMT), responsible for the national implementation of the core curriculum, should be implemented. The tasks of the National Management Team would be: • to implement the core curriculum; • to assure quality in its own country; • to collect data material and to report it to the CIU; • to implement agreements; • to cooperate with and support the CIU.