The EU's Police Chiefs Task Force (PCTF)
01 November 2005
- A story of self-regulation and self-definition by a body with no legal or constitutional basis
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A plethora of groups, agencies and centres have been set up by the EU since the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty. One of the first was the Police Chiefs Operational Task Force - as it was originally called - set up after the Tampere Summit in October 1999. Recommendation no 44 called for:
the establishment of a European Police Chiefs Operational Task Force to exchange, in cooperation with Europol, experience, best practices and information on current trends in cross-border crime and contribute to the planning of operative actions
In the event the PCTF has interpreted "contributing" to the "planning" of operations as planning operations - as the Belgian delegation observed as early as May 2000 it is "essentially geared towards the operational aspects of police work".
To say it was "set up" sums up its legal basis - it was "set up" and first met in April 2000 in Lisbon and to this day has no legal basis in the EU. [1]
2000 - PCTF launched
A "Note" from the UK Delegation to the Article 36 Committee dated 2 February 2000 summarised the intended role of the PCTF (doc no: 5858/00). The "idea" was defined as bridging the "gap" between the provision of information and intelligence "on serious organised crime" through Europol and "its translation into operational activity". [2] The examples cited were drug trafficking, illegal immigration and paedophile rings. The PCTF would be a "high level informal group" comprised of "top-level law enforcement officers with the "authority to commit resources and direct operations".
Although an "informal" group it was to report to the JHA Council via the Article 36 Committee while the legal basis was sorted out. The UK Note said it was "anticipated" the PCTF "would be given a formal legal basis set out in a separate legal instrument". This was necessary, it was argued, in order to give it a "proper status within the Council structure" and "should be negotiated quickly so that the Task Force can start work later this year" (ie: 2000).
The same Note said that the PCTF:
would be serviced by the Council Secretariat
The UK Note also posed a number of questions that needed answers, including: "How will the Task Force physically get information from Europol without it breaching data protection laws? Will there be the need to store it separately and if so how"? These questions, like its legal status, have never been answered.
The first meeting in Lisbon, 7-8 April 2000, was entitled an "Informal meeting of Chief Police Officers" - an "informal" meeting of an "informal" group. The Presidency Conclusions (doc no 7753/00) set the tone for the future - the PCTF was to define its own remit and roles to be rubber-stamped by the Article 36 Committee. The Conclusions said that it was necessary to create a "flexible, evolving and initially informal structure". Its transnational roles on organised crime now included terrorism and public order ("whenever events occur which are likely to threaten it"). December 2001 was set as the date for assessing its function - as we shall see below three events were to shape its role before then.
In May 2000 the Belgian delegation sent a Note to the Article 36 Committee (doc no: 8120/00) calling for the PCTF to:
"be made an official working party of the Council of the EU" [3] drafting opinions for the JHA Council and Article 36 Committee. The second meeting of the PCTF in Paris on 14-15 September 2000 tried to flesh-out its roles. Counterfeiting of the euro, which just about to be launched and "community policing" were added.
2001 - new roles for the PCTF
With little substantive to discuss the third meeting of the PCTF in Stockholm, 8-9 March 2001, the group looked to define its role for itself (doc no: 7194/01). Its "Working Methods" it was decided:
"require only a minimum of regulations"