OSCE Secretary General welcomes agreement with European Commission on policing operation

VIENNA, 28 February 2002 - The OSCE Secretary General, Jan Kubis, today informed the Organization's 55-nation Permanent Council that the first Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the OSCE and the European Commission (EC). It concerns a contribution to the policing operation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

He welcomed the agreement as a clear demonstration of the will of both organizations to co-operate. "We are advancing our understanding of each other's capabilities, based on the Platform for Co-operative Security", Mr. Kubis said. "This memorandum is a further step that demonstrates the growing partnership between the OSCE and the EC."

Mr. Kubis recalled the mandate of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, (Permanent Council Decision 439, 28 September 2001), which called for the deployment of police trainers and police advisers. It also established close co-operation between the Police Adviser in the OSCE Secretariat's Operation Centre and the EC police experts in Brussels.

The Memorandum has been developed as a result of continued close co-operation between the EC and the OSCE during the planning phase of the police component of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje, which is training multi-ethnic police to serve in previous conflict areas in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Under the new agreement, the EC will deploy two police experts to the OSCE office in Skopje, to work in close co-operation with the OSCE Police Development Unit there. They will bring to the joint enterprise all relevant EU policing models, standards and best practices, with the aim of developing police reforms in the country.