Brussels, 10/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Building a fence to keep out illegal migrants is far from being a “panacea” to border security issues, said Guy Verhofstadt, who heads the ALDE Group, and ALDE representative Renate Weber, in a press release on Thursday 9 February. “History has proven time and again that long-term security cannot be ensured by the construction of walls and fences”, they said in response to the announcement by Greece on Monday that it planned to construct a barbed wire fence along its border with Turkey, in this case at the River Evros. Verhofstadt and Weber believe it would be better to reinforce action by the European border agency, Frontex, which “can and should do more to assist member states with responsibility for policing the EU's external borders”. Greece, however, should also do more, beginning with an “efficient and functioning asylum and immigration system”. The two parliamentarians deplored the fact that Greece had received EU funding for this but had so far not achieved results. Greece has also already received missions from the Frontex agency and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). In addition to the building of a fence, it would be preferable if Greece were to target agreements with Turkey for management of migratory flows and for consolidating instruments for migration surveillance, Verhofstadt and Weber said. (SP/transl.jl)