Regulation (EU) 2015/2219 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) and replacing and repealing Council Decision 2005/681/JHA

On 16 July 2014, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a Regulation establishing CEPOL (COM(2014) 465 final), repealing and replacing the Council Decision 2005/681/JHA. The proposal initially provided for the merger of CEPOL with Europol, but the idea was rejected by both the Council and the European Parliament, the Commission therefore decided to renounce to this aspect of its legislative proposal. The proposal seeks to boost CEPOL's role as the European Agency for Law Enforcement training. It gives CEPOL the appropriate legal mandate and the necessary resources to implement the EU Law Enforcement Training Scheme (LETS) proposed in March 2013, which aims to equip law enforcement officials of all ranks with the knowledge and skills they need to prevent and combat cross-border crime (Art. 3 (1)). It updates and clarifies CEPOL’s objectives, notably including a coordination role and a focus on thematic areas where training at Union level can be of added value (Art. 3). It attributes a number of new tasks to CEPOL, such as those related to assessing EU initiatives in defined fields, building the capacity of third countries, providing multiannual strategic training needs assessments, and the promotion of mutual recognition of training among EU Member States (Art. 4). It mandates Member States to establish a national unit, which notably has to respond to requests for information from CEPOL, and to appoint an official as the Head of the national unit, who will be National contact point of CEPOL and the Member State's representative at the Management Board (Art. 6). The administrative and management structure of CEPOL is modified to better reflect the common approach on decentralised agencies. In particular, CEPOL Secretariat is absent for CEPOL’s structure and the Governing Board is replaced by a Management Board, comprising the European Commission as voting member (Art. 7). The appointment mechanism of the Executive Director is modified to include the European Commission (Art. 22). Finally, additional functions and responsibilities were given to the Management Board and the Executive Director (Art. 9 and 14).

The LIBE Committee of the European Parliament adopted its draft report on 25 November 2014 and its orientation vote on 24 February 2015 (rapporteur: Kinga Gál).The Committee report was tabled for plenary 1st reading/single reading on 12 March 2015.

Trilogue negotiations started in March 2015 and a compromise between co-legislators was reached during the JHA Council meeting of 15-16 June 2015. This agreement was endorsed, on behalf of the Council, by COREPER on 29 June 2015.

The plenary of the European Parliament adopted its first reading position 29 October 2015. The Council adopted the proposal on 16 November 2015. The final act was signed on 25 November 2015 and published in the Official Journal on 4 December 2015 (OJ L 319). It will enter into force on 1 July 2016. Even if the final text maintains most changes made to CEPOL’s legal framework by the Commission’s proposal and adds some elements to it, such as an implementation role in CEPOL’s objectives (Art. 3), some elements put forward in the proposal were deleted, in particular the reference to LETS in the operative part of the regulation to the Head of national unit.