The UK, Poland, and Sweden have proposed sending an EU police mission to Ukraine to build up its law enforcement bodies in the wake of February’s revolution.
“Re-establishing confidence in the rule of law in Ukraine will be vital for future stability. We thus propose a capacity-building mission focused on supporting the police and judicial system,” they said in an informal paper circulated in Brussels this week.
The paper, seen by EUobserver, notes the mission would focus on “monitoring, mentoring and advising” as well as “strategic advice”.
It says: “While the mission should primarily focus on central government in Kiev, it should also have a remit to work in the regions, monitoring and providing advice on how to build a robust national system in the medium to long-term.”
EU ambassadors are set to discuss the idea today.
But the paper also calls on the EU’s foreign service to put the proposal on the agenda of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
“In principle, launch of the mission should occur by June 2014 and a core team should deploy to Kiev as soon as possible after the FAC [the ministers’ meeting] to commence planning and co-ordination,” it says.
The mission, under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) umbrella, would work together with the EU’s existing border-control operation in western Ukraine, the so-called Eubam.
It would also work alongside a military monitoring mission already sent into the field by the OSCE, a multilateral body in Vienna, and alongside Nato experts working on Ukraine security sector reform. (more)
Read the whole story here: http://euobserver.com/justice/123816
Source: EUobserver