(1)

Article 29 of the Treaty states that the Union's objective is to provide citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice by developing common action among the Member States in the fields of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

(2)

In their Declaration on Solidarity against Terrorism of 25 March 2004, the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the European Union declared their firm intention that the Member States mobilise all the instruments at their disposal to assist a Member State or an acceding State in its territory at the request of its political authorities in the event of a terrorist attack.

(3)

Following the attacks of 11 September 2001, the special intervention units of all law enforcement authorities of the Member States have already initiated cooperation activities under the aegis of the Police Chiefs Task Force. Since 2001, their network, called ‘Atlas’, has conducted various seminars, studies, exchanges of materials, and joint exercises.

(4)

No single Member State has all the means, resources and expertise at its disposal to deal effectively with all possible kinds of specific or large-scale crisis situations requiring special intervention. It is therefore of crucial importance that each Member State be able to request the assistance of another Member State.

(5)

Council Decision 2008/615/JHA of 23 June 2008 on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime (3) (Prüm Decision), and in particular Article 18 thereof, regulates forms of police assistance between Member States in connection with mass gatherings and similar major events, disasters and serious accidents. This Decision does not cover mass gatherings, natural disasters or serious accidents within the meaning of Article 18 of the Prüm Decision but complements those provisions of the Prüm Decision envisaging forms of police assistance between Member States through special intervention units in other situations, namely in man-made crisis situations presenting a serious direct physical threat to persons, property, infrastructure or institutions, in particular hostage taking, hijacking and similar events.

(6)

The availability of this legal framework and of a compilation indicating the competent authorities will allow Member States to react speedily and gain time should such a crisis situation arise. Moreover, with a view to enhancing Member States' ability to prevent and respond to such crisis situations, and in particular terrorist incidents, it is essential for the special intervention units to meet regularly and organise joint trainings, so as to benefit from mutual experiences,

(a)

‘special intervention unit’ shall mean any law enforcement unit of a Member State which is specialised in the control of a crisis situation;

(b)

‘crisis situation’ shall mean any situation in which the competent authorities of a Member State have reasonable grounds to believe that there is a criminal offence presenting a serious direct physical threat to persons, property, infrastructure or institutions in that Member State, in particular those situations referred to in Article 1(1) of Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism (4);

(c)

‘competent authority’ shall mean the national authority which may make requests and give authorisations regarding the deployment of the special intervention units.