Well dear readers, amongst the myriad of websites I trawl through daily looking for things pertinent to Ukraine is Statewatch.
Often there is very little to do with Ukraine, however a quick perusal has led me to the EU handbook “with recommendations for international police cooperation and measures to prevent and control violence and disturbances in connection with an international dimension, in which at least one member state is involved.”
Rather relevant considering Ukraine co-hosts the Euro 2012 football tournament in less than 12 months time.
A little further digging revealed the results of an EU questionnaire relating to “police cooperation with non-EU countries in the area of sports events security“. Needless to say, Ukraine did respond to the questionnaire.
All jolly interesting. However, “According to some countries (BE, BG, CY, PO, PL, RO, ES, SE, HU, UA), certain general aspects regarding cooperation with non-EU countries (such as basic standards, recommendations) could be included in the “Football Handbook”, but it would not provide a legal basis for this kind of cooperation”.
So, have the huge legal issues of national sovereignty, cooperation and the necessary sharing of data relating to individuals and groups been overcome?
Ukraine, as highlighted in the national abbreviations above, quite rightly is seeking a legal framework over these issues. A matter, somewhat made more complicated when the co-hosts happen the be the EU Member State of Poland, with the inherent herds of EU citizens heading into Ukraine and equally non-EU citizens from nations like Ukraine and Russia heading into Poland (and thus the EU), possibly under a temporarily waved Visa regime for the non-EU citizens.
Is this another occasion where the road to good intentions is paved with great big blobs of sticky legalities and where the cracks in the European continent’s pavement can lead to extremely unfortunate outcomes through bureaucratic limitations relating to the flow of information?
It will be terribly difficult to explain or justify unwarranted violence, or worse a terrorist act, due to the flow of intelligence being stuck to a nasty globule of legality on one side of a border.
Anyway, it won’t stop a practical assessment of how things are at the moment thanks to the Ukraine verses Sweden friendly on Wednesday.