If approved by governments, a new European Border and Coast Guard will replace the EU’s Frontex agency and have expanded powers, including the new standby force.
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According to Reuters, Timmermans conceded, “There is a lot of debate about us imposing our will on member states”. “But it is essential to restore the credibility of our border management system”.
“In an area of free movement without internal borders, managing Europe’s external borders must be a shared responsibility”, said Frans Timmermans, the commission’s first vice president. “The EU and its member states must ensure a dignified and safe reception for migrants and refugees on the land border between Turkey and Greece”. “The decisions of the agency will be binding”, warned Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s top migration official. “The Commission wants all of the member states to completely shut themselves off. That goes against European law and is entirely unacceptable from a human rights perspective”, said Keller in Strasbourg.
The European Commission today unveiled plans for a single Border and Coast Guard that can be deployed on a nation’s soil without the consent of its government, sparking a furious row over sovereignty.
The new package will see a gradual increase in Frontex’s budget, from the €143m originally planned for 2015 up to €322m in 2020 by which time all additional staff will have been recruited.
The European Commission is set to outline controversial plans for an EU border and coast guard force as part of efforts to curb the record influx of migrants.
The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, is proposing the introduction of a fresh bureau with more powerful powers to keep those who aren’t lawfully entitled to enter the EU on the outside of its own external boundaries. “The growing number of EU citizens that leave and return to the Union for terror purposes is just one of the reasons we can no longer do without more effective control of our external borders”. It is unlike the current Frontex agency which asks member states for contributions.
The Czechs have already deployed dozens of officers Hungary and Slovenia to help them guard the borders of the EU’s visa-free Schengen zone.
The agency also announced that at the end of November 715,000 migrants – majority coming from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq – had arrived in Greece – “16 times more than in the same period past year”.
The EU leaders are scheduled to discuss the proposals at a summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
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A monitoring and risk analysis centre will be established to monitor migratory flows towards and within the European Union and to carry out risk analysis and mandatory vulnerability assessments to identify and address weak spots. More checks will also be required against existing databases.
