EU plans for a new border and coastguard agency
The new agency is needed because of Europe’s unprecedented refugee crisis, says the European Commission (EC).
It claims an estimated 1.5 million people crossed the EU’s external borders between January and November 2015.
The EC also mentions the issue of the EU’s internal security, which has been under the spotlight after the Paris terror attacks on November 13 amid questions around how the attackers obtained arms and moved seemingly undetected into France.
The EU already has a border management agency, Frontex, set up in 2004 and based in Poland.
But its powers are limited: it doesn’t have its own guards or equipment – it borrows from EU member states – and it has to get permission from governments to carry out border management or search and rescue operations on their territory.
According to the EC, Frontex’s proposed reincarnation will address these shortcomings, which have been exposed during the EU’s refugee crisis.
Individual member states will continue to manage their own borders on a day-to-day basis. The new coastguard agency will only intervene if a country is assessed to be ‘vulnerable’ in terms of protecting its borders.
It will also help return illegal migrants, who will have a European travel document to help smooth their passage home.
Hungary told Euronews the plans were “against common sense”, while Poland is also against them on grounds it would impinge on its sovereignty.
However, Germany and France are in favour of the project..
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has welcomed the move, but he stressed that ultimate authority over the borders would still lie with Greece and he ruled out joint patrols with the Turkish navy, as envisaged by the Commission.
