ASSOCIATION OF EUROPEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN GENDARMERIES AND

LAW ENFORCEMENT FORCES WITH MILITARY STATUS (FIEP)

1. Description:

   Association of European and Mediterranean Gendarmeries and Law Enforcement Forces with Military Status (FIEP) is an organization established to strengthen the cooperation among the Gendarmeries and Law Enforcement Forces with Military Status of European countries and the countries on the basin of Mediterranean.

2. FIEP Members:

    The members of the Association are the Gendarmerie Organisations of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, the Netherlands, Morocco and Romania; the associated members are Argentina and Chile.

In 2010 Summit Meeting, Jordan Gendarmerie General Directorate (Darak Forces) has become an observer member (for at least one year) and participated in FIEP as the eleventh member.

3. Short History of FIEP:

    French National Gendarmerie General Directorate proposed a cooperation project on 1 October 1992 in order to provide with a place on the international arena that is deserved by the law enforcement forces with military status, which are responsible for maintaining public order and security in most part of their countries.

   For this purpose, the cooperation works were initiated on various platforms. A meeting was organized in Madrid on 18 May 1994 by the representatives of French National Gendarmerie General Directorate, Italian Carabinieri Corps Command and Spanish Guardia Civil to be able to carry out the works efficiently and determine the legal limits. In this meeting, an organization was established under the name of FIE which stood for the capital letters of these countries.

    Portuguese Guarda Nacional Republicana, which responded the invitation of participation to the organization favourably, attended the meeting held in Rome on 2 June 1995 and FIE became FIEP.

    The first FIEP summit meeting which General Commanders and Directors attended was held in France on 23 May 1996. A principle to hold presidency for a country for one year was adopted with a Common Declaration signed in this meeting.

    The Gendarmerie General Command sent a letter dated 30 August 1997 to the Gendarmerie General Commanders and Directors of FIEP member states and declared their will to be a member of FIEP organization.

    The request of Turkish Gendarmerie to be a member of FIEP was discussed during General Commanders and Directors Summit Meeting held in Lisbon on 21 October 1997 and the observer status of Turkish Gendarmerie was accepted.

    The membership of the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command to FIEP was approved in Gendarmerie General Commanders and Directors Summit Meeting held in Madrid on 20 October 1998. In the same meeting, the Royal Netherlands Marechausse Command and Moroccan Royal Gendarmerie Command were accepted as observer members to the FIEP organization.

    FIEP Agreement regulating FIEP works and internal operation was signed at the meeting of the Gendarmerie General Commanders and Directors Summit held in Rome on 20 October 1999. The text of this Agreement was updated in 2011, 2002 and 2009.

4. Membership Dates of FIEP Members :

                                            (*) Associate member

5. Membership Requirements to FIEP :

     a. To be a member of Council of Europe or a country on the basin of Mediterranean.

     b. To be a general law enforcement force with military status.

     c. To prevent and investigate criminal offences which require penalty under judicial authority.

     d. To maintain public order under local or national authority.

     e. To assume various administrative tasks additionally.

 6.  FIEP Organs :

        a. Presidency in turn

        b. Secretary (FIEP Project Officer)

        c. Senior Council of Directors and General Commanders (Summit)

        d. FIEP Commissions

            (1)  Service Organization

            (2)  Human Resources

            (3)  New Technologies and Logistics

            (4)  European Affairs

  7.  Working Principles of FIEP :

      FIEP does not have a system of permanent secretary or presidency. These duties are performed in turn by the member countries. The duties of Presidency in turn and secretary are initiated with General Commanders and Directors Summit Meeting held in October every year. The organization performing these duties hands over the duties of presidency and secretariat to the successive organization through General Commanders and Directors Summit Meeting held in their countries.

     The Presidency is carried out in turn by the members for one year.

     The country holding the Presidency is responsible for organizing the meetings of Senior Council of Directors and General Commanders (Summit), preparatory activities and hosting the meetings held in October every year.

     President represents FIEP; coordinates and controls the programs determined by Senior Council (Summit).

    During one-year mandate, the relevant Directorate/Command carries out the following duties by the Secretary of the Presidency established in their headquarters:

     a.  To conduct activities foreseen by the Agreement.

     b.  To facilitate contact among the Commissions.

     c.  To conduct liaison duties with the central office determined by every member institution.

     ç.  To prepare all the necessary documents.

    Secretariat is responsible for:

     a.  Organizing and coordinating joint activities such as preparatory meetings.

     b.  Being a point of contact for collecting and distributing reports and information.

     c.  Preparing minutes of meetings held by Senior Council of Directors and General Commanders; to follow that all the activities resulted from the decisions made in these meetings are included in the common declaration and carried out in line with this.

     ç.  Following the activities foreseen by the decision taken by the Commission, their results and the issues determined previously by means of the reports to be received from the institution hosting the annual meetings.

     d.  Examining general or specific proposals and requests submitted by the parties.

     e.  Collecting and managing the applications and problems related to the exchange activities designed and carried out by the member states.

  8. FIEP Commissions:

      Four main activity areas have been determined within FIEP with a view to diversifying and enriching the current relations among the gendarmerie organizations of the member states and a commission has been formed for these areas. The commissions and their fields of operation are as follows:

      a. Human Resources Commission:

           (1)   To organize annual meetings and seminars on personnel recruitment, education and training.

          (2)   To share statistical data (selection criteria, qualifications for candidates etc.) in personnel recruitment policies and to update the relevant regulations.

          (3)  To compare the methods and programs used by the training institutes on various levels and to ensure sharing common personnel training documents.

          (4)  To strengthen the contacts among the experts in the field of mountain search&rescue, dog training activities, technical, science and justice and to ensure sharing personnel and experience among special intervention units in these fields.

          (5)   To ensure sharing experience in the fields of environmental protection, coast guard and maintenance of public order.

          (6)  To ensure strengthening contacts between representatives and instructors of schools and twinning of education institutions.

          (7)  To encourage delivering courses necessary for the personnel to follow the innovations on operation and defence techniques.

      b.  Service Organization Commission:

           (1) To share information and experience about laws, regulations, statutes, directives, modus operandi and research techniques.

          (2) To ensure cooperation among member states by means of visits by the competent authorities on scientific investigations, protection of environment and cultural assets, fight against drugs, organized crime organizations, terrorism and illegal migration and of organizing courses and meetings.

          (3) To ensure sharing experiences on the fields of coast guard, subaqueous activities, disposal of explosive materials, fight against sabotage, border management and international peace keeping operations.

         (4) To ensure examining and assessing the relevant problems in order to standardize the methods used on managing and organizing the maintenance activities of public order.

           (5) To ensure improving cooperation in the field of public relations.

     c. New Technologies and Logistics Commission:

         It performs activities on the following areas and ensures sharing of information among member states:

         (1) Protection and intervention equipment.

         (2) Techniques and methods used for audio surveillance, reconnaissance and locating.

        (3) The documents and materials related to the technical and scientific systems (DNA, voice and fingerprint identification, entomology) to be used in criminal laboratories.

         (4) Research of standardized hardware and software systems.

         (5) Sharing experiences on the use of internet for operational and judicial purposes.

         (6) Developing systems for processing pictures and data.

         (7) System protection.

         (8) System digitalization.

         (9) Communication contact among neighbouring countries.

         (10) HF systems

         (11) Communication means related to security of communication.

         (12) Means of transportation.

     ç.  European Affairs Commission:

         The European Affairs Commission has been established by the institutions of the representative countries which are the members of European Union. The duty of this Commission is to select the projects, which are proposed by at least two member states and provide common interest, and to submit them to the relevant institutions of European Union for approval. The law enforcement forces or gendarmeries, which are the members of FIEP but not European Union, may participate in the works of the Commission as observer members.

9. FIEP Presidency and Secretary Held up to now :

10. Activities carried out in the course of Presidency of the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command in 2008-2009:

     The meetings and seminaries organized in the scope of FIEP in the course of Presidency of the Gendarmerie General Command in 2008-2009 are as follows:

   During the Presidency, FIEP logo was formed and FIEP Agreement was rearranged in order to meet the current requirements in addition to the activities mentioned above.

FIEP Summit Meeting

13 October 2009- Ankara

FIEP Commanders and Directors are in front of Gendarmerie Martyr Monument

13 October 2009- Ankara

Hand over Ceremony for FIEP Presidency

13 October 2009- Ankara

Hand over Ceremony for FIEP Presidency

13 October 2009- Ankara

11. Activities carried out in the course of Presidency of the Royal Netherlands Marechausse Command in 2009-2010:

FIEP Summit Meeting

19 October 2010- The Netherlands

FIEP Summit Meeting

19 October 2010- The Netherlands

FIEP Summit Meeting

19 October 2010- The Netherlands

Hand over Ceremony for FIEP Presidency

19 October 2010- The Netherlands