Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-15-Speech-3-247"
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"en.20020515.9.3-247"2
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".
Mr Posselt, I would very much like to be able to tell you right now when the decision on the headquarters of the European Police College will be taken, but I am afraid that this is not an issue on which a quick decision can be made, because the headquarters of this college is included in a package relating to a whole range of European agencies that has been the cause of great controversy in the EU.
You will recall that in Gothenburg the Swedish Presidency tried to reach an agreement over headquarters; that in Laeken, the Belgian Presidency tried once again, and put forward a proposed agreement on headquarters, which was blocked by not only one, but by various countries at the same time.
And I would like to tell you, simply, in the intimacy of this hemicycle – which is certainly quite intimate today – that the Spanish Presidency is doing everything it can to put together a package that will allow all countries that aspire to host headquarters of European Agencies – given that to get a particular agency in one’s country appears to be a matter of life of death to all concerned – to come to an agreement.
We are currently holding bilateral talks, and the President-in-Office of the Council, Mr Aznar, when he visits the capitals of the Member States before the next European Council, will try to put together a package that can be presented to the Council.
However, I have to tell you that if this package is not sufficiently solid we are not prepared to go through the tiresome spectacle of watching the Council turn into some kind of souk in which everyone is squabbling over one headquarter or another.
With regard to the Police College, we already have temporary headquarters. As you are probably aware, as is typically the case in the European Union, temporary headquarters normally end up being the permanent headquarters. I do not mean to say that the Police College will remain permanently in Denmark, but, in truth, there are some temporary headquarters that have been temporary headquarters for forty years now, and, in any case, money has already been allocated for training and we hope that this will come into operation.
I shall not go into precise details right now about which countries are competing for the headquarters, other than to tell you that there are many, and often no-one knows if these countries really want these headquarters or whether they are choosing this option as some kind of decoy or bargaining tool to get something else.
Therefore, I believe that the less we deal with this issue, the better.
With regard to the second issue you asked me about, I believe that this falls within the competence of the Commission, which will come to Parliament before the end of June. I hope it will be Mr Vitorino who comes, the Commissioner responsible, who would be the best person to answer your question in this regard."@en1
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