Foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday (14 December) gave a lukewarm reception to EU Commission plans for a new EU border and coast guard force. The bloc’s executive is to propose, on Tuesday, that the border force be deployed on EU external borders if frontline member states fail to protect the EU boundary. EU leaders will, at a summit on Thursday, agree to “rapidly” examine the plan, according to the latest draft conclusions, seen by EUobserver. The most controversial part of the proposal is that the force can be deployed even if the target member state doesn’t want it. The commission says deployment can only be blocked if they gather enough support - two thirds of EUCouncil votes - to form a “reversed qualified majority.” Luxembourg foreign affairs minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency, echoed EU Council chief, Donald Tusk, in saying that uncontrolled migration has the potential to undermine EU free movement in the so called Schengen zone. “Tusk is right, if we don’t protect our external borders, Schengen will fail,” Asselborn said on Monday. “The question is how to deal with the sensitivity of member states, such as Italy or Greece. Does it [deployment] happen upon request or can it be triggered if Frontex [the EU border control agency] sees danger on the external border?”, he added. “Every country, which is on the external border and does not want to build a fence, needs to accept a European mechanism,” he said, alluding to Greece, which has waved through more than 700,000 asylum seekers en route to Germany and which put up resistance to EU intervention.
Access Investments-Building Awareness - European Union-ROMANIA
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday (14 December) gave a lukewarm reception to EU Commission plans for a new EU border and coast guard force. The bloc’s executive is to propose, on Tuesday, that the border force be deployed on EU external borders if frontline member states fail to protect the EU boundary. EU leaders will, at a summit on Thursday, agree to “rapidly” examine the plan, according to the latest draft conclusions, seen by EUobserver. The most controversial part of the proposal is that the force can be deployed even if the target member state doesn’t want it. The commission says deployment can only be blocked if they gather enough support - two thirds of EUCouncil votes - to form a “reversed qualified majority.” Luxembourg foreign affairs minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency, echoed EU Council chief, Donald Tusk, in saying that uncontrolled migration has the potential to undermine EU free movement in the so called Schengen zone. “Tusk is right, if we don’t protect our external borders, Schengen will fail,” Asselborn said on Monday. “The question is how to deal with the sensitivity of member states, such as Italy or Greece. Does it [deployment] happen upon request or can it be triggered if Frontex [the EU border control agency] sees danger on the external border?”, he added. “Every country, which is on the external border and does not want to build a fence, needs to accept a European mechanism,” he said, alluding to Greece, which has waved through more than 700,000 asylum seekers en route to Germany and which put up resistance to EU intervention.
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