Background and Aim

The European Council meetings at Feira in June 2000 and Göteborg in June 2001 have identified and stressed the importance of training for civilian aspects of crisis management as a priority area with a view to enhancing the capacity of the European Union in order to respond effectively to international crises. The existence of well-trained civilian experts ready to be deployed at short notice will be key to the European Union’s ability to undertake the full range of conflict prevention and crisis management tasks. The creation of trained reserves is essential in order to provide civilian personnel for peace missions and field activities of the United Nations, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and other international organisations, as well as for EU-led missions.

This led the European Commission to launch a Pilot Project in October 2001 on Training for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management, focusing on the areas of rule of law and civilian administration, with the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR) acting as project co-ordinator for the first three phases 2001 - 2005. 

EU Member States were invited to nominate national bodies to become project partners. Today, 14 partners from 14 EU Member States form the EU Group on Training (EGT) - an informal EU-wide network of governmental and non-governmental organisations responsible for training of civilian personnel.

The project partners adopted a comprehensive approach. They found that the EU needs to establish capabilities:

• covering all stages of conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict settlement;
• for the broad spectrum of functions and tasks required during the different stages of the conflict management cycle, i.e. mission tasks would include advisory; monitoring; fact-finding, investigation and inquiry; training and capacity-building; as well as executive tasks;
• supporting local ownership in the conflict area and compatible with civil society;
• related to other actors in the field, and in co-operation with relevant international organisations, in particular the UN, OSCE and the Council of Europe.

Following the comprehensive approach, the following functional areas, which are closely related to the spheres of civilian administration and the rule of law as specifically defined, were identified from the training perspective:  “Rule of Law”, “Human Rights”, “Democratisation and Good Governance”,  “Organising Civilian Administration”, “Press and Public Information – Media Development”, “Conflict Transformation”, and “Mission Administration & Support”.

Based on the qualifications of the personnel who will be needed to fulfil the previously listed functions, target groups were identified according to the different organisational backgrounds, such as civil servants, NGO personnel and independent experts (from academic and private sectors). In terms of levels of knowledge, participants will have expertise in their respective areas of professional competence. In addition, they might also already have acquired field experience.

Regardless of the mission to which civilian personnel will be seconded, all civilian experts should undergo function-oriented preparation; it is recommended that participation in a “Core Course”, providing general background knowledge and skills for mission service, should precede the participation in a specialisation course. If possible, Core and Specialisation Courses should take place before a mission assignment, thus providing for well prepared personnel, ready for a rapid deployment in a mission after a short Mission-Induction Briefing.

Training curricula were developed for the Core Course and the Specialisation Courses for the functional areas mentioned as well as for the Mission-Induction Briefing. In order to ensure complementarity and full interoperability, the training modules take into consideration the training standards and training materials developed by the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and other relevant international organisations.

During a second phase of the project, five Pilot Core (with a total of 129 participants) and ten Pilot Specialisation Courses (with a total of 163 participants) were implemented in nine EU Member States between January 2003 and February 2004. The pilot courses were assessed as very successful and as a good basis for further development. It was recommended that Member States which run courses for international crisis management activities of various organisations, such as the OSCE, the UN and others make use of the Core Courses as the basis for their own training. Areas of improvement were formulated according to learning objectives, methodology and the organisation of the single courses, the nomination of participants, and the evaluation and assessment of participants.

Proposals were developed with regard to the future training cooperation within the EU and with other international organisations such as the UN and the OSCE. These proposals were welcomed in Rome by the EU conference on training under the Italian Presidency in October 2003 and were subsequently incorporated in the third phase of the project in 2004. This phase also took into consideration the June 2003 mandate of the European Council of Thessaloniki to develop a co-ordinated EU training policy in the field of ESDP, encompassing both civilian and military dimensions, and the subsequent Council papers on “Common Criteria for Training for EU Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management”, agreed by CivCom on 13 November 2003, and the Training Concept in ESDP. Both of the Council papers stress the role of the EGT in developing civilian capacities for EU crisis management.

During the third phase of the project, five Core Courses, 11 Specialisation Courses  and two further pilot courses (one ESDP Civil-Military Training Course and one EU-UN Training Course on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration) with a total of 370 participants were organised between January 2004 and February 2005. In addition, a special workshop on the training for the reinforcement of the Rule of Law in the area of criminal justice was organised.

The experiences with Phase III were presented to Member States’ Focal Points for the Project, members of the Committee for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management (CIVCOM), representatives of relevant institutions of the European Commission and Council, and of interested training institutions in EU Member States at a Working Seminar in Vienna on 3 – 4 November, 2004. The working seminar, including the incoming Luxembourgian Presidency, stressed the importance of continuing the Project in a fourth phase, in order to maintain and reinforce the unique experience and know-how which has been developed by the EGT. The recommendations in the report for the working seminar and the proposed activities, as laid forth by the project co-ordinator of Phase IV, the Folke Bernadotte Academy, were welcomed.

Phase four of the Project aimed to further promote EU training co-operations, and therewith contribute to the further development and establishment of a common approach and harmonised training programmes. Of course, implementing training courses (especially pilot courses) was a central aim. Even so the support of the co-ordinated EU training policy in the field of ESDP. As various examples such as the EU-UN Pilot SC “Child Protection, Monitoring and Rehabilitation”, implemented at the ASPR, prove, enhancing the training co-operation with other international organisations was not only targeted but realised successfully.
Furthermore, phase IV sought to integrate lessons learned from upcoming EU deployment in Iraq covering the civilian administration and rule of law components and thus making it the first multifunctional ESDP mission, as well as the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), following priorities formulated by the Commission and Council. To this end, the project also conducted a needs assessment regarding training needs for the planned EU Mission in Kosovo.

Phase V of the project is envisaged to start in fall 2007 with International Alert from UK as co-ordinator.