EU Advisory Mission Regional Presence in Odesa receives go-ahead from EU Council
December 19, 2017
At a meeting of the Council of the European Union yesterday, the member states of the EU agreed to set up a Regional Presence of the EU Advisory Mission Ukraine (EUAM) in Odesa. EUAM, which is headquartered in Kyiv, will now have a total of three Regional Presences, following the opening of offices in Lviv and Kharkiv in summer 2016.
Recruitment for twelve international and nine local positions is currently taking place. The new team is scheduled to arrive in Odesa in the first quarter of 2018.
The opening of the Regional Presence in Odesa will strengthen EUAM’s longstanding ties with the region. Since the beginning of 2016, EUAM has conducted over 20 trainings in Odesa in areas such as community policing, public order, human resources management, good governance and gender and human rights. The Mission has delivered strategic advice on topics such as intelligence-led policing, performance evaluation for prosecutors and merging the functions of police operatives and investigators for more effective criminal investigations. The Mission has also provided its partners in Odesa with equipment, for example IT equipment for the University of Internal Affairs and mobile printers for the police.
Furthermore, many police officers, prosecutors and other officials working in law enforcement and rule of law institutions from Odesa or the south of Ukraine have attended trainings or received strategic advice in Kyiv, Lviv or Kharkiv.
“The opening of the Regional Presence will help the Mission to build on the partnerships and projects we have implemented in the city of Odesa, the Odesa Region and the south of Ukraine so far and further deliver on the objectives set for us by the EU member states,” said EUAM Head of Mission Kęstutis Lančinskas. “Odesa based civil society organisations have for a long time advocated for a EUAM presence in Odesa. Our experiences in Lviv and Kharkiv indicate that a Regional Presence will enable us to increase our support for our partners and local efforts to establish civilian security structures that are effective, accountable and enjoy the trust of the public”.
