Giorgio Butini
Giorgio Butini, police adviser to the Office of the EUSR/EU Commission Delegation in Skopje, Macedonia, recounts his experiences while serving as central coordinator and deputy head of program for Proxima, the European Union police mission in the former Yugoslav republic. During 18 years with the Italian State Police, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Butini discusses the coordination of efforts of various external organizations in the transition from a military to civilian police force in Macedonia. His reflections about the representation of ethnic Albanians and Macedonians in the reformed police force and his insights into the coordination of efforts between and among external and internal actors contribute to the conversation on structural components of policing reform.
At the time of this interview, Giorgio Butini was police adviser to the Office of the EUSR/ EU Commission Delegation in Skopje, Macedonia. A lieutenant colonel of the Italian State Police with 18 years of active service, in 2001 he joined the United Nations mission in Kosovo, where he served for more than a year as deputy regional commander in the Pec/Peja Region. In 2003 he went to Brussels as a police expert during the Italian presidency of the European Union. In October 2003 he was part of the planning team in Brussels and Skopje that launched Proxima, the EU police mission in the former Yugoslav republic, where he served for two years, first as central coordinator and then as deputy head of program. Co-author of a manual on international police missions, he was also a trainer at the European Police Academy beginning in 2002.