News

Recap: CEP 2007-2010

Publication date: 21-4-2010

Article:

With the upcoming General Assembly (GA) in Malaga at the 27^th of May, the 10^th Board of CEP will step down. Looking back at the mandate which it was given at the GA in Tallinn in 2007, the term 2007-2010 was probably the most ambitious one in the history of CEP. In Malaga CEP President Patrick Madigou will give a presentation on the achievements in this period. As a sneak preview, he already mentions some of the highlights of his presentation in this Newsletter. "An important task of this Board was to develop CEP into a full professional organization", recalls Patrick Madigou. "In the last three years, we have set the first step in this process. And I feel it is a huge step." 

In many regards the GA in 2007 in Tallinn was a milestone in the history of CEP. It took place at a moment that that the sector of probation in Europe was facing unprecedented challenges. At a European level, both ‘Brussels' and ‘Strasbourg' showed to be committed to engage in probation matters. At the time, the EU was preparing its the first regulation in the field of probation, i.e. the Framework Decision on Probation Measure and Alternative Sanctions (2008/947/JHA). The Council of Europe had decided to draft its Recommendation on Probation, which would set the minimum standard for probation practice in Europe. On a national level many countries with no tradition in probation have been setting up national probation services. In several countries with a long tradition in probation also significant changes took place. The scope of their probation services was broadened from the traditional aftercare to involvement at all levels of the criminal justice systems, such as victim-offender mediation. And on an academic level, due to the increased interested in probation, the establishment of a ‘science of probation' was in the air.

"Before Tallinn, CEP was particularly strong in organizing conferences on probation topics, to exchange knowledge", says Patrick Madigou. "However, CEP needed to expand its activities to keep up the pace with the dynamics in probation in Europe. We had to increase our efforts in knowledge exchange and in addressing probation issues at a European level. At the same time we couldn't compromise on delivering every year a high-quality conference programme, since we are expected to do this."

Paramount in all these goals was to develop the CEP communications, notably by making use of modern communication technologies. "In this way we would be able to inform our members quicker, more often, at a cost efficient way. As one of the first steps, we quickly developed a new website", explains the CEP President. "Ever since it went online, the website has been a reflection of the extension of our activities. As such, sections were added to the website, for instance on the Register of Experts, on EU funding programmes or on the Special interest Group on Foreign National Prisoners. And since two months, as a follow-up of our publication of Probation in Europe, the website contains up-to-date summary information on probation systems in 32 jurisdictions in Europe. Currently CEP is also working on a web forum, on which CEP members can discuss on probation topics online, and on a website for EuroVista, the European journal on probation and community sanctions matters. Both we hope to bring online before the GA in Malaga." 

In order to make it possible to enlarge its activities, CEP had made a plan to increase its staff capacity. At the GA in Tallinn, it presented a scheme in which the staff capacity would grow gradually over the years. "The capacity for communications would grow from 0,5fte in 2008 to 0,8fte in 2009 and to 1te in 2010", recalls Patrick Madigou. "However, quite soon it became clear that if we wanted to live up to our ambitions, we had to extend the communications capacity more rapidly than we had projected. Therefore we extended the contract of the Communications Officer from 0,5fte to 1fte in April 2008. At about the same time, CEP extended its staff capacity of its executive staff by appointing an 0,5fte Assistant to the Executive Officer. With this staffing we should be able to face future challenges."

In addition to the enlargement of the staff capacity, CEP regularly made use of expert knowledge to prepare some important strategic actions. Patrick Madigou exemplifies: "In this way CEP commissioned Steve Murphy, former Director General of the National Probation Service for England & Wales, to initiate a project plan to develop a statistical standard for probation statistics. The plan was further developed by HEUNI, the Finnish based European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control. This resulted in a project proposal submitted in July 2009 under the ISEC funding programme of the EU. Any moment, we hope to hear the result."

Experts also played an important role in CEP's contribution to the various working plans of the EU, such as the annual work plan 2009 of the Directorate General Justice, Freedom & Security (DG JFS), and the Stockholm programme, which defines EU priorities in the Justice arena for the period 2010-2014. "In order to truly be the ‘voice of probation' in Brussels and Strasbourg', CEP first held a consultation round among its member organisations in October 2008", illustrates Patrick Madigou. "We asked them to indicate what they identified as the most important topics to discuss at a European level. Almost all organizations responded, and they responded extensively. Then we commissioned Roger McGarva, former Head of Regions and Performance at the National Probation Directorate, to analyze the answers and to formulate the common topics for the entire sector."

This proved to be a very valuable exercise for CEP. The CEP President continues: "In January 2009, we brought up all these priorities of the sector in an official meeting with the EU Vice-President and Commissioner of DG JFS. In all our later contacts with the EU, we have continued to advocate these points. Therefore we are all the more happy to see that in that year probation clearly took a more prominent place in the EU regulations. For instance, in August 2009, for the very first time, ‘probation' was mentioned explicitly as a priority in an EU funding programme call for project proposals. And when the Stockholm programme was published at the end of the year, it turned out to be the first a long-term EU policy document in which the ‘alternative sanctions' were explicitly mentioned. I am proud that CEP has contributed to a climate in which probation has been promoted and these favorable decisions have been taken."

With regard to its conferences, CEP managed to maintain the high standard of it has set during the previous terms. Patrick Madigou: "Due to the developments in the sector of probation, we had no problem in picking relevant topics for our conference programme. During this term ‘What Works' has become a recurring topic in the CEP conference programme. Our conference in Neuchâtel in March 2008, was very well-attended, and with our  conference in Cambridge in April 2010, we can speak of a tradition in the same way as our Electronic Monitoring conferences. I also think that many other themes that have been discussed in our conference programme have the potential to get a sequel, such as our expert meeting on the EU Framework Decision in Dublin in October 2009 and the conference on Recruitment and Training of Probation Officers in Agen in December 2009. All these developments clearly show the current dynamics in probation in Europe, and encourage CEP to keep on focusing on establishing attractive conference programme in the next term." 

In addition to all challenges for the sector of probation at the time of the GA in Tallinn, the current CEP Board also was also faced with one unexpected challenge which manifested itself in September 2008: the credit crunch. "It cannot be denied that in the coming years it will have its influence on the CEP too", predicts the CEP President. "Nevertheless, since the outbreak of the economic crisis, CEP has managed to move forward. I think one of the big assets of this Board was that there was the willingness to work together to strengthen the ties with the current members, while trying to involve more and more organizations active in probation as well. And I hope that our member organisations will show this spirit of ‘doing it together' too: I hope to welcome as many of our member organisations as possible in Malaga."