WAPI News

THE 5TH CONGRESS OF EUROPEAN DETECTIVES

John Edwards - WAPI GC Member (EU Affairs).
And
Rick Howatson - WAPI Central European Representative

View the photographs:

1) In the European Parliament

2) Euro Parliament flag stand in Strasbourg - France (Left: Rick Howatson WAPI European Representative; Right: Darrell Crawford Smith WAPI Member.)

3) In the planar conference room during the 5th European Congress for detectives. Many WAPI members taking part in the action.

The 5th Congress of European Detectives was held on the 9th 10th March at the European Parliament in Strasburg, under the Sponsorship of the C.N.S.P-A.R.P and was organised by Alain Bernier and Marie-Francoise Hollinger. On behalf of WAPI I would like to thank them both for their efforts in organising the Congress.

The venue was an excellent one with all the correct facilities available especially the Simultaneous Translation facilities.

The morning session on the 9th kicked of late due to administration difficulties but once it got underway did progress after the various welcome speeches. One of which reveled that Javier Iglesias Asuar was standing down as the President of the A.P.D.P.E - Javier has been very influential and worked very hard to bring all European Detectives together, however he has pledged to continue to support future Congresses.

There were some 100 delegate’s from 15 nations in attendance at the Congress as follows:-

BELGIUM, COMORES, FINLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, ISRAEL, ITALY, LATVIA, NORWAY, PORTUGAL, SLOVENIA, SPAIN, SWITZERLAND, UK, USA,

The UK attendance in reality was only WAPI - with obviously no interest in the European situation from other Associations. That having been said there was good attendance from WAPI members. WAPI was really well represented - including WAPI Honorary Members Miriam Ettisch Enchelmaier and Javier Iglesias Investigator plus two Holders of the WAPI Investigator of the year award holders Warren Levicof and Matthias Willenbrink – Supported by WAPI Members - Darrell Crawford Smith - Bjorn Grytor – Andrej Dvorsak to name just a few.

All the Member States in attendance, had the opportunity to have their say. I read a statement on behalf of the WAPI Chairman clearly stating our position to support the Draft Statute which Marie-Francoise Hollinger has proposed and to further support Reciprocal Licensing within Europe.

I believe it was well received and clearly stated the policy of WAPI in respect of any future European Licensing.

Other Member States spoke about the differences that exist in their own countries, and also made comment in respect of the Data Protection differences. In some Member States the Licensing of Investigators gives them direct access to Data which is not in the public Domain.

The afternoon session comprised of a visit to the main Parliament room which was very impressive (I can see where all our taxes are going). This was followed by three informative speakers the first dealing with Psychological Profiling in the French Police the second and third speaker’s two female lawyers then discussed French Law on Privacy and also spoke about a European Code of Ethics.

Unfortunately no real progress was made on the first day regarding getting things organised, however I have been reliably informed by Miriam Ettisch Enchelmaier that on the morning of the 10th there was a speaker from the European Council of Professions who offered some very sound advice with regard to the way forward which was to properly form an Organisation within Europe with a very tightly drafted Code of Legal Ethics. This could assist in bringing about parity across the member states in a bid to get a European organisation recognised by the European Parliament.

My personal opinion is that each member state should be represented by an individual or an association which should meet at least once a year. If a European Body is to exist, then they will need to be financed by the individual member states either as individuals or by subscriptions from associations.

There is also a need to research a proper data base of each member state - so that the differences that exist between each member state are documented and can be properly compared across the board and provide a far better understanding of those differences. A suggested list of information required from each member state is attached at Annex A.

I also feel strongly that any future Congress must set out clear aims to be achieved so that the reason for attendance is more meaningful to the delegates.

The 45 minute talk given by Dr.Theodoros Koutroubas Director General du CEPLUS (Counsel European Professions Liberal) was the most positive Speaker -. He had an answer for everything and very quickly showed the Delegates the way forward.

Alain Bernier was suggested to preside over, and he accepted the Presidency of the newly formed European Counsel of Detectives with Marie-Francoise Hollinger as the Executive Counsel Secretary. Then an executive committee was voted in with six members - John Edwards being the elected Representative for the UK on the Executive Council.

The “Steering Committee” then confirmed that the persons in question would hold Office for 3 months - to assist the Executive Committee to collect all data required to establish a general consensus, and to be able to lobby the European Parliament with the concerns of the Private Investigator and the Private Investigator European license. The meeting closed at 12.45 hrs.

The WAPI Chairman and GC extend our thanks to John Edwards, Rick Howatson and the many WAPI Members who took the time out to attend the important Event.

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