EU ministers to discuss integrated riot police corps

EU ministers will discuss next month a German proposal to create a European riot police corps to protect high-level meetings from anti-globalisation protesters.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily will put the matter on the agenda when he meets his EU counterparts in Belgium on September 28.

‘‘It’s a complex project that must be discussed in detail,’’ said his spokesman, Rainer Lingenthal.

Schily proposed the move as a way to combat the rioting which has disrupted a series of international meetings - most recently the Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy.

While Italy’s Interior Minister, Claudio Scajola, has already supported the initiative, Lingenthal said talks have yet to take place with other EU Governments.

Schily said he could foresee ‘‘a kind of European intervention force, a kind of riot police’’ that could help prevent any repeat of the rioting in Genoa.

His spokesman stressed the aim was to improve training, information exchange and coordination rather than set up any permanent, separate EU-wide force.

Italy’s Government has come under fire for its handling of last month’s Group of Eight summit at which one protester was killed and more than 200 protesters injured in clashes with Italian riot police and carabinieri.

German police could offer their experience to other forces under the initiative, Lingenthal said. Thousands of German police are deployed every year to contain left-wing protesters who take to the streets May 1.

About 70 of the 300 people arrested during the riots were German, and far-left German groups have staged regular protests against Italy in Germany since the July 20-22 summit.