On 22 September, at its premises in Budapest, CEPOL celebrated its 25th anniversary with key partners and stakeholders. To mark the agency’s 25-year contribution to the EU and its citizens, CEPOL organised a high-level event and panel discussion on the strategic value of law enforcement training for EU security and its external dimension.
Addressing the audience at the opening of the event, Jan Pecháček, CEPOL’s Executive Director said: “As we celebrate this anniversary, let’s see this moment not only as a milestone, but as a starting point — the beginning of a new chapter in CEPOL’s journey. A chapter that will require the same spirit that has brought us this far: commitment, cooperation, trust and ambition”.
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Ms Beate Gminder, Director General for Migration and Home Affairs at the European Commission, stated: “Security in Europe depends on our ability to work together. For 25 years, CEPOL has built more than knowledge and skills - it has built the trust and connections that make effective European law enforcement cooperation possible”.
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Ms Emese Horváczy, Deputy State Secretary of the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, noted: “We believe CEPOL should further strengthen its role as an EU-level coordinator of law enforcement training, helping to ensure that quality, coherence and recognised professional qualifications are the centre of the European training system”, and added: “CEPOL is particularly well placed to bring together the expertise that already exists across Europe”.
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In their keynote speeches Chief Superintendent Padraig Jones from An Garda Síochána, on behalf of the Irish Presidency and Maria Areti Kyritsi, Chair of the CEPOL Management Board stressed the importance of CEPOL’s work in bringing together law enforcement agencies from EU Member States, partner countries and organisations. In his video message, Javier Zarzalejos, Chair of the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee, underlined CEPOL’s role as a strategic enabler of cooperation, professionalism and operational convergence, indicating that the agency’s work contributes directly to the resilience and security of Europe as a whole.
The event concluded with the panel discussion: A ten-year outlook – The strategic value of law enforcement training for EU security and its external dimension. Guillaume Le Blond, Management Board voting member for France, Andrei Lințǎ Deputy Executive Director of Europol, Capabilities Directorate, and Alexandru Niculiță, Head of CEPOL’s International Cooperation Unit exchanged views on how EU-level training for law enforcement officials constitutes a longstanding investment in people, partnerships and collective security.
About CEPOL
In 2001 CEPOL began its journey
as a network of national police academies, training institutes and universities. In 2005 the agency’s headquarters were set up in Bramshill, UK, while in 2006 CEPOL became an EU Agency.
In 2014, CEPOL relocated from the UK, to Budapest, Hungary. In 2016, a significant shift in the agency’s mandate expanded its reach to all EU law enforcement officials. CEPOL is also implementing five major projects, involving beneficiaries from MENA regions, Western Balkans and Eastern Europe.
