This group arose from the observation that there is in the Draft European Convention a paragraph that mentions the creation of a European Civil Peace Corps. In the original text of the draft, this is intended as a youth movement, apparently conceived as an expanded EVS (European Voluntary Service) system. The task of the working group was originally to explore ways this paragraph could give an opening for the EPLO to recommend an extension of this paragraph to include other kinds of Peace Services, based on expert civilian intervention, and thereby gain access to the EU system – a foot in the door – for NGOs that provide such services.

The group convened for the first time in Brussels on 22nd.July. Present at the meeting were: Rachel Julian from Nonviolent Peaceforce Europe, Tim Wallis from Peaceworkers UK, Catrione Gourlay from ISIS Europe. Also invited were Jan Matthieu from The Belgium Green Party (political councillor for Aelvoed, Belgium’s Minister of Health, and president of the European Greens in the EU Parliamentet) and two interns. Ideas at the meeting varied from simply adding a comment to the ECPC paragraph to the opposite extreme of suggesting a whole new comprehensive system.

The meeting concluded with Tim Wallis and Babs Sivertsen agreeing to work together on a draft, with the following mandate:

"Make a proposal for a mechanism to recruit, train, evaluate and match experts for rapid deployment in conflict situations.
The proposal should include a mechanism for the establishment of standards and a process of accreditation of NGO participant organisations.
The proposal must integrate and professionalize NGOs into existing EU crisis management and conflict prevention systems."

The draft was to be sent to the other members of the group for comments, and the final version was to be presented to EPLO at their annual general meeting in October.

Tim and Babs met in London on the second week in August to discuss the paper. After the meeting, a draft was drawn up that was then sent round for a hearing to the EN.CPS. The paper went backwards and forwards many times, and was radically reduced and altered from the original, fairly comprehensive suggestion. Along the way the original Civil Peace Corps became a European Civil Peace Service, then a European Peacebuilding Agency. The version attached was sent out on the 16th September and has not elicited further comments, so it appears to be the accepted version.

This version was submitted to the EPLO working group on the European Commission, which incorporated it in its suggestions for changes in the draft of the European Convention. In this version the new mechanism became the “European Peacebuilding, Research and Civilian Capabilities Agency”, but in substance it does not differ greatly from the ECPC Working Group’s draft.

My suggestion is that the ECPC Working Group’s “draft” is supplied as background material in the form of an attachment to the EU Convention Working Group’s “Suggestions for amendments”. The conclusion is that the two working groups have each contributed admirably to the whole.


Babs Sivertsen, 28.10.2003

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