GOV OF FRANCE QUESTIONS STATUS OF CSI PERSONNEL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 002062 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/WE-JLEVIN, EUR/EX, L, M/R, EB/TRA/MA-SMILLER CBP FOR OIA-KTHOMSEN, RBONNER, AND AGINA ICE FOR FOREIGN OPS DIVISION E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AMGT AODE EWWT FR SUBJECT: GOV OF FRANCE QUESTIONS STATUS OF CSI PERSONNEL REF: BERLIN 927 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Government of France is considering asking the U.S. to change the current status of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Container Security Initiative personnel working at the port of Le Havre. CSI Le Havre personnel currently hold "administrative and technical" status. The GOF says that some other EU member states -- not the European Commission -- are pressing for all EU member state governments to grant the same level of status to U.S. CSI personnel in all EU ports -- most likely an "Official Mission" ("en mission") status with no diplomatic immunity and few privileges. The request, likely to be repeated in other EU capitals, calls for a coordinated USG response -- involving all relevant agencies including State and DHS -- to look at short- and long-term implications of the options available to the U.S. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Embassy Econ MinCouns, ICE Attache, Embassy HR representative and econoff met with Foreign Ministry DAS-equivalent for transportation, infrastructure and energy policy Jean-Claude Nolla at his request on March 24. Nolla wanted to discuss informally the question, recently raised in an EU council committee meeting by other EU member states, of the status of Customs and Border Protection officials staffing the Container Security Initiative in various ports in EU countries. He was joined by two additional Foreign Ministry officials: Francois Naucodie from the Strategic, Security and Disarmament Directorate and by Rene Levarey from the Protocol office. ¶3. (SBU) France has already granted Administrative and Technical (A&T) status to CSI personnel in Le Havre, which affords them diplomatic immunity from prosecution stemming from any action taken during the performance of their official functions as well as other tax and import benefits. CSI in Marseille is active but its staff has not yet been declared to the Foreign Ministry for accreditation. Nolla said that the GOF now had a problem with the A&T status of the Le Havre personnel for three reasons: 1) CSI team members were not engaged in diplomatic work and their current status did not correspond to the reality of the activity they performed; 2) CSI team members are not physically located at a diplomatic mission even though they are currently "attached" to the American Presence Post in Lille (consular district divisions would more logically put them under the authority of Embassy Paris, he said); and 3) other EU member state governments which host CSI teams have raised the CSI personnel status issue in Brussels and argued that EU member state governments should grant the same status to all CSI personnel in EU ports. ¶4. (SBU) Nolla made it clear that, for the GOF, reason number three -- the fact that several member states felt strongly about having a common approach to CSI personnel status and were revisiting the issue -- was by far the most pressing rationale for the GOF to raise the issue with the U.S. at this time. He acknowledged that the GOF was in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the U.S. having already granted A&T status to Le Havre personnel yet now, under pressure from other EU member states, questioning whether that was the right decision. Nolla said the Commission was not involved in this issue and that the UK, the Netherlands and Germany were pushing hardest for a common approach to the status question even though the Netherlands had also already given CSI personnel at Rotterdam A&T status. ¶5. (SBU) On the positive side, Nolla stressed that the GOF was in no way calling into question the CSI project itself or its mission with French Customs to prevent weapons of mass destruction from being secreted into maritime shipping containers. He said the GOF remained committed to the CBP/French Customs bilateral Declaration of Principles that set out the operation of the CSI program in France. ¶6. (SBU) Nolla explained that the GOF planned to further discuss and coordinate with its EU partners, and suggested that in the meantime, the U.S. consider "Official Mission" status (in French, "En Mission") for CSI personnel. While EU member states were not officially proposing "Official Mission" status at this time, he said, Nolla made it clear that it may be an acceptable alternative as it better reflected what CSI team members actually did. He said that the GOF's eventual decision on the matter would be in coordination with its EU partners in an effort to harmonize the status of CSI personnel in all affected countries. ¶7. (SBU) In any case, the status of current CSI staff members in country would not change, Nolla said, and any future GOF decision to alter the status would only be applied to new CSI arrivals. He suggested we meet again to discuss the issue in about two weeks after Embassy had consulted with Washington. ¶8. (SBU) Embassy personnel were mostly in listening mode but pointed out that Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy, in addition to France, all have granted the same A&T status to CSI personnel. We also said that CSI Le Havre, although under APP Lille for proximity purposes, operated under the direction of the U.S. Ambassador in Paris. We agreed to maintain contact and respond after discussing the issue with relevant USG agencies. ¶9. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST: The Embassy anticipates that the question of status of CSI personnel will be raised in all EU member states that host CSI programs. The U.S. will likely need a coordinated interagency review of the short- and long-term implications of our options. Further, since CBP offers CSI as a reciprocal program and invites participant countries to send customs officers to major U.S. ports to target outgoing maritime container cargo, Washington agencies may wish to prepare for the possibility of EU countries requesting not only program reciprocity, but also reciprocity of status in the treatment of their customs officers in U.S. ports. So far, the GOF has not raised the issue of reciprocity of status for any French Customs officials eventually assigned to U.S. ports, and we are not aware that the GOF is considering a reciprocal program at this time. LEACH