Brussels, 23/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - European Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström will, on Wednesday 24, bring forward a proposal on the revision of the regulation setting up the European Agency for cooperation at external EU borders, Frontex, to increase its operational capabilities. The main measure of this initiative seeks to allow the Agency to ensure that member states make available the necessary material (boats, helicopters, planes) to conduct operations, and perhaps, too, to purchase its own equipment. The proposal should also ensure the availability of qualified border guards to take part in joint operations. They will have to be trained in fundamental rights and in the international principle of “non-refoulement”. In order to enhance the operating capacity of Frontex, there will also be improvement of the coordination, implementation and assessment of operations between the Agency and member states, which will remain responsible for control of their external borders. It is also proposed that Frontex will itself coordinate joint operations returning migrants to their countries of origin. Lastly, the Agency will have greater scope for cooperation with third countries, including by means of liaison officers. The proposal has to be approved by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament (co-decision). Once adopted, the regulation will apply directly in the EU. Frontex, which has been based in Warsaw since 2004, currently employs 220 people and has a budget of around €88 million allocated by the EU.
The Commission proposal follows numerous calls from southern European countries for the EU's external borders to be made more secure in order to combat illegal immigration. Last week once again, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and French Immigration Minister Eric Besson reached agreement to coordinate efforts to urgently make Europe's borders more secure, a press release from the French ministry says. France and Italy want an increase in the operating capacity of Frontex prior to the setting up of the European borders police provided for in the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, and operational cooperation and readmission agreements with main third states of origin and transit, the text goes on. The European Commission, which has long been planning the enhancement of Frontex, will present its initiative to European home affairs ministers at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on Thursday 25 February. (B.C./transl.rt)