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European Group on Training (EGT) for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management
The emerging conflict situation of the late twentieth century, continuing into the twenty-first century, has been characterised by a growing number of intra-state conflicts with world-wide repercussions. This development presents a challenge to the conflict resolution capabilities of international organisations, such as the United Nations (UN) and its agencies, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the European Union (EU) as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Now, these organisations must take into account the different phases of the conflict management cycle and link conflict prevention and crisis management to long-term rehabilitation and structural assistance. Additionally, international organisations have recognised the importance placed on the role of civilian components of conflict resolution.
Since its inception, the European Community has been involved in conflict prevention and crisis management. The Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam introduced new instruments for political/diplomatic and security/military action under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
The European Council meetings at Feira in June 2000, and in Göteborg in June 2001, represented important milestones concerning efforts to critically take stock of the current level of readiness and future preparation of civilians required for various crisis management activities. The existence of well-trained civilian experts ready to be deployed within a short amount of time was considered as important for the European Union’s ability to undertake the full range of conflict prevention and crisis management tasks. At the time, however, many civilians assigned by Member States were not properly trained or did not have previous mission experience. History has proven that the pool of people available on short notice must be much larger than the actual number of people demanded. The European Council saw the creation of so called trained reserves as essential in order to provide civilian personnel for peace missions and field activities of the European Union and other international organisations like the United Nations, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
In October 2001, the European Commission (EC) launched a pilot project on “Training for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management” – referred to simply as the Project – with the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR) acting as project coordinator. During what is now known as Phase I, the Project focused on the areas of rule of law and civilian administration and aimed to promote EU training cooperation, identify joint approaches to civilian training, and develop training modules. The modules developed during Phase I formed the agreed basis for common civilian training modules in the EU and lead the way towards the establishment of common training standards.
During Phase I, the Project established the ‘Core Group’, an informal network of training experts and representatives from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. The Core Group developed proposals for a common approach and harmonised training programmes. It included a module for a two-week Core Course for general preparation, two-week Specialisation Course modules for function specific preparation, and a mission induction briefing.
These modules were endorsed at a conference in Madrid hosted by the Spanish Presidency of the EU in May 2002.
Phase II of the Project began in November 2002, during which the Core Group was enlarged and became the EU Group on Training (EGT), with the additional members from Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The training modules developed during Phase I were turned into curricula and tested in five pilot Core Courses (with a combined total of 129 participants) and ten pilot Specialisation Courses (with a combined total of 163 participants). These 15 courses 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.
Proposals were developed with regard to the future of training cooperation within the EU and with other international organisations such as the UN. These proposals were welcomed by two conferences under the Italian Presidency of the EU in October 2003, and subsequently became the basis for Phase III of the Project to begin in 2004. During Phase III, the EGT sought to foster closer training cooperation in the EU and organised three Core Courses and eleven Specialisation Courses. Furthermore, a pilot Civil Military Coordination course under the framework of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) was developed, as well as an EU-UN training course based on the identification of joint standards and requirements. A combined total of 370 participants enlarged the pool of civilian experts available at short notice.
The Civilian Headline Goal 2008, set by the European Council of December 2004 confirmed the EU’s ambition to be active, capable and effective in civilian crisis management. Financed by the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, Phase IV commenced in March 2005 and aimed to contribute to the EU’s ability to meet its objectives concerning the deployment of well-trained civilian experts for crisis management missions. The coordination passed to the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Sweden. Phase IV worked further to develop and establish a common approach and harmonised training programmes in the fields of rule of law and civilian administration. Based on the modules and courses developed in the previous phases, six Core Courses and twelve Specialisation Courses for over 300 civilian experts were organised and evaluated in the first year of Phase IV.
Based on identified needs of the EC and Council and other relevant EU institutions, and after a field study in Bosnia and Herzegovina and an expert meeting, the course selection in the second year of Phase IV were adjusted to keep up with the changing needs of ESDP missions. The areas of human rights and EU-UN cooperation were found to be essential aspects of civilian training, and the course selection was modified accordingly. The specialisation pilot course on Civil-Military Coordination was implemented. Additionally, special attention was given to the effort of incorporating new Member States, as well as enhancing training cooperation between other organisation, such as the UN, AU, and OSCE. Expert workshops on EU-OSCE and EU-UN cooperation in the area of civilian aspects of crisis management were held in 2006. The EGT also developed and implemented a Civilian Response Team (CRT) induction course, with the goal of training a stand-by force of 100 members.
Commissioned by the EC, an external evaluation of Training on Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management was conducted by the Human European Consultancy at the end of 2005 and published in 2006. As the evaluation report studied the history of the Project and the EGT as a whole, including the political environment in which the EGT operated, it was able to identify achievements and successes throughout the previous four phases.
At the conclusion of Phase IV, the EGT name was changed to avoid confusion surrounding its status. As the EGT has no current, official status within the EU structures, the name was modified to the European Group on Training, for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management – still, simply referred to as the EGT. The EGT decided to seek further funding from the EC to continue to coordinate civilian training initiatives for ESDP and other EU missions as a contracting party for delivery of training services to the Commission.
Phase V of the EGT began in March 2008 and operates under a grant from the EC through the Instrument for Stabilisation (IfS) titled ‘Training for Civilian Crisis Management and Stabilisation Missions’. The EGT is operating in its current phase with the following key objectives: - to consolidate, document and publish the training curricula developed by the EGT;
- to develop and pilot specialist courses relevant to current multi-lateral initiatives;
- to continue training experts identified for participation in EU Civilian Response Teams (CRT);
- to build consensus around a European training standard for deployment in international missions, compatible with UN, World Bank and OSCE requirements;
- to establish a system of course certification for training organisations delivering EGT modules;
- to support the training for civilian crisis management and stabilization missions in Africa;
- and to strengthen the civilian training capacities of the EU Member States.
During Phase V, the coordination of the project passed to the UK member International Alert. As the overall membership of the EGT has grown, it was necessary to create a steering group composed of those members who are implementing various activities in Phase V and leading working groups. The first plenary meeting of Phase V was held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom in April 2008. Shortly following this meeting, the work of the EGT was complemented by a conference held to coincide with the Slovenian Presidency of the EU in May 2008, titled ‘Building EU Training Capacities: Sharing Resources and Experience in the Field of Civilian Crisis Management’. The EGT held its second plenary meeting of Phase V from 1-2 October 2008 in Berlin and its third plenary from 22-23 April 2009 in Tallinn. The EGT and its various working groups worked on their contracted activities through the duration of the contract, ending 31 October 2009.
Read more on Civilian Crisis Management from the European Commision.
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