Brussels, 18/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 November, the European Commissioners Dimitris Avramopoulos and Elzbieta Bienkowska, in charge of Home Affairs and the Single Market respectively, presented a raft of measures aiming to tighten up the European legislation on firearms and deactivation standards (see EUROPE 11432), whilst stressing the need to reach a compromise on the European PNR dossier and not to focus on the revision of the Schengen Code.
In the wake of the Paris attacks of 13 November, which left 129 dead, the Commission has prepared a revision of the directive on firearms dating from 1991, which will control the acquisition and possession of firearms, together with an application regulation which will take effect within three months, on minimum standards for the deactivation of weapons (see other article).
Following the meeting of the College of Commissioners, Avramopoulos also announced that by the end of the month of November, he was to present a proposed directive revising the framework decision 2008/919/JHA on terrorism. The objective will be to harmonise the criminal response of the member states to terrorist activities, such as so-called passive activities such as assistance with travel to Syria, for instance.
On the European PNR project and the collection of data of the passengers of European airlines to tackle terrorism and organised crime, the Commission reiterates that there is “no time to lose”, as Avramopoulos stressed. He added that this opinion was “shared” by all of the different European institutions. On this dossier, negotiations between European Parliament, the Commission and the Council of the EU were held on Tuesday 17 November and two further meetings are scheduled for 2 December and 15 December in Strasbourg. The aim of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council remains to reach an agreement before the end of this year, even though some points remain controversial, such as the inclusion of intra-European flights. The British rapporteur of the EP, Timothy Kirkhope (ECR), said on Wednesday that he was in any case confident of sticking to this objective, adding, without going into any details on the contents of the discussions, that progress had been made in this direction.
On Wednesday, the Commission stressed that all of the mechanisms of the Schengen Border Code should be used by the member states to step up controls on the external borders and improve the tracing of the movements of foreign fighters, as most of the Paris attackers had travelled through Syria for training. Commissioner Avramopoulos also said that the Commission did not intend to open a reflection on the future of the Schengen zone, with friends calling for several months for a targeted revision allowing the systematic control on the basis of police files (SIS2, Interpol database) of all European nationals. The Commission reiterated that these stepped-up controls on European citizens were already permitted by the risk criteria published by itself in May of this year for the attention of the border police.
On the Schengen, however, there are a number of things that can be improved, Avramopoulos acknowledged, but without touching upon the principle of what is still “a fabulous achievement” and a symbol of European integration. Therefore, the Schengen Information System needs to be used better, he stressed, to include travel bans issued in any given state against certain individuals. The Commission also wants the member states to include more information such as expulsions from their territory.
In the spring, the Commission is also to present its package on smart borders. On 3 December, the first major forum will be held with the Internet giants on the fight against radicalisation, a forum the idea for which was launched by the Commission following the attacks in Paris in January 2015. At the end of the year, the Commission will present its plans for the European coastguards, which will aim to increase the effectiveness of controls on the external borders and the action of the national coastguards.
For its part, the EPP group on Wednesday published an action plan to prevent radicalisation and terrorist attacks and called for several dossiers to be finalised as a matter of urgency, such as the European PNR - a dossier on which it accuses the S&D and ALDE groups of playing a double game and hindering progress - the directive on data protection in the police and criminal framework, a directive the EPP wants to review to bring it into line with recent threats, and cooperation with the Internet majors and social networks.
According to the EPP, Europol needs to be reinforced, as does Frontex, which should be given fresh resources. The EPP is also calling for a revision of the Schengen Border Code to “reinforce and coordinate controls on the internal borders of the EU”. The Greens/EFA argue that although it is important to reinforce cooperation between the police, legal services and intelligence, it is also vital that the European response does not mean a step backwards for the fundamental freedoms, Judith Sargentini (Netherlands) commented in a press release. Although the budgets of agencies such as Europol and Eurojust need to be increased, we must avoid ending up with measures based on “mass surveillance, such as the PNR system”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)