Amsterdam, 25/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Amsterdam for their first meeting of the year, interior ministers from the EU member states (more particularly, those from the Schengen area) called on the European Commission to prepare a legal analysis of the possibilities for extending member states' internal border controls and subsequently activating Article 26 of the Schengen Border Code.
This possibility had already been mentioned by ministers at the beginning of December, during their previous meeting in Brussels. Current measures for controlling internal border controls, like the ones implemented by five member states such as Germany and Austria, cannot continue longer than the middle of May, which is a source of concern among member states, especially if the migratory situation is not entirely under control by that date. The Dutch secretary of state for justice, Klaas Dijkhoff, announced: “We have therefore asked the Commission to prepare a legal analysis to continue, and to use Article 26”. He added that by then, the member states concerned should be able to “coordinate the measures” already in place.
In practice, by the middle of May, a three-month process should be in place once the Commission has submitted its assessment of the geographical area of particular concern to the ministers - namely, Greece. During these three months, the European Commission will therefore be able to issue recommendations and draw up an action plan to improve the external border situation. One Commission source explained that in the event of the country being targeted not applying the recommendations or succeeding in improving the situation, Article 26 would be activated. As from mid-May, member states and the Schengen area would therefore be able to renew these internal controls four times, for six-month periods and for a maximum of two years or until May 2018, as an ultimate scenario, Dijkhoff stated. The European commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, believes that this work will help to provide safeguards in the Schengen area - “but to maintain it”, not to see it disappear.
At the same time as the legal analysis requested from the Commission, ministers for the interior again insisted in Amsterdam, on the strengthening of the EU's external borders. They therefore gave a warm welcome to the proposals made by the Commission in December to set up a European coast and border guard, which should be moving quickly towards adoption. The Dutch minister, however, said that they would need to strike a balance between shared external border management and respecting the primary scope of member states in managing their portions of the common borders
According to the Frontex agency, the number of migrants arriving in Greece was still very high in December, with 108,000 people counted and the number of migrants arriving from Turkey on a daily basis still remaining too high for Greece's partners. Another point of discussion, which was particularly raised by the French, involved the fight against fake Syrian and Iraqi passports. France is particularly keen on combating the use of these fake passports by terrorists, which are either brand-new or stolen and has requested the setting up of a task force and more systematic verification of Interpol files in this connection.
Greek ministers speak of “lies”. This implicit pressure on the Greek authorities is certainly not to the liking of the government and the Greek interior and immigration ministers Nikos Toskas and Ioannis Mouzalas used the opportunity afforded by the meeting to call for an end to what they see as a campaign to belittle their country. They wanted to make clear their position on the situation at the EU's external borders, as Mouzalas put it during a press briefing with his colleague.
What is upsetting the Greeks above all are the discussions on Article 26, which they see as a desire to suspend Greece from the Schengen area. Such an eventuality “is not legally possible”, said Toskas and neither is it “the view of the European institutions”, the two men added, giving assurances that no proposal of this sort is being prepared by the Commission.
The two ministers tried to convince their counterparts that their country was doing everything possible to meet what is expected of it, pointing out that, thanks to the newly acquired Eurodac machines, an 80% rate of fingerprinting of migrants had been achieved compared with the 50% rate of the last few months. Greece also intends to provide itself with another 100 of these machines.
“It's not true that identification of migrants isn't happening”, said Mouzalas, speaking of widespread “lies” in the media. He acknowledged, however, that “we are behind on hotspots” though, “in the worst-case scenario”, they will all be operational by the end of February, he assured. The two ministers also pointed to failings on the part of the other member states and aid promised by them which has yet to materialise.
Turning to the relocation of asylum seekers, as was agreed by ministers in September and which, thus far, has involved only 351 people (out of the total of 160,000 to be relocated over two years), “half the member states have still not given any commitments”, they stated. Avramopoulos said that “as soon as all the hotspots are operational, no member state will be able to offer any further argument for not taking part” in the relocation mechanisms. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)