Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 26 Feb 2014

European Police College: Motion

Chairman

Apologies have been received from Senators Rónán Mullin and Martin Conway. Senator Michael Mullins is attending in substitution for Senator Conway if needed.

The purpose of the meeting is to consider a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Decision 2005/681JHA establishing the European Police College, CEPOL. A briefing note has been circulated to members.

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy John Perry, and his officials to the meeting. I invite the Minister of State to brief the committee on the motion and it will be followed by a question and answer session.

Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Deputy John Perry)

I am speaking on this matter on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, who is unavoidably detained elsewhere on business. The Minister recommends that Ireland exercise its discretion to opt in to this measure, which concerns temporarily moving the seat of CEPOL from Bramshill in the United Kingdom to Budapest in Hungary until a long-term solution for the future of the agency is found. This is a technical amendment to the CEPOL regulation to amend the name of the location from Bramshill in the UK to Budapest. There are no difficulties or significant implications of the amendment from an Irish perspective. Ireland submitted an application to host the seat along with six other countries. The matter was voted on at a JHA meeting of Ministers in October. Ireland is supportive of the decision to locate the college in Budapest.

Hungary is covering a number of costs including cleaning and public utilities which were previously borne by the EU. The permanent location of the seat forms part of discussions on a new Europol regulation in which the Commission seeks to co-locate the agency with Europol in the Hague. These discussions are ongoing. I recommend the matter to the committee.

Chairman

We made an application to try to get that college moved to Ireland, but it did not happen. We tried anyway.

Deputy John Perry

The Minister was disappointed. That was a vote at the Council of Ministers. We were unsuccessful in the bid but we are happy with the recommendation being made today.

Senator Katherine Zappone

Is the primary point of today's recommendation efficiency?

Deputy John Perry

Yes. The eventual seat will be in the Hague. That discussion is ongoing. This is just a temporary shift to Budapest.

Senator Ivana Bacik

How temporary is it? It seems costly to move it to one place and then to another. I know Hungary is bearing the costs.

Deputy John Perry

Costs are important but Bramshill is closing down. That is the main justification for the change. If it had remained open, this debate would not be taking place.

Chairman

Is the amalgamation of CEPOL and Europol dead in the water?

Deputy John Perry

It is frequently discussed at the Council of Ministers but there is no definitive proposal at the moment.

Chairman

I thank the Minister of State and his officials for attending and giving their time for this very long session.

Deputy John Perry

It was very efficient.