On Monday 5 December, the French Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, defended his action to MEPs from the civil liberties committee (LIBE) and used his visit to Brussels to call on Parliament to endorse several texts still pending, such as the reform of the Schengen Border Code, which seeks to introduced systematic controls of the EU’s external borders for all nationals, including Europeans.
The French Minister was, however, questioned about the issue of visa liberalisation and asked by the Spanish rapporteur Agustin Diaz de Mera (EPP) to agree to final talks on the suspension mechanism. The French Minister dismissed criticism that France would block negotiations on the suspension mechanism.
France “is not blocking” but is trying to be part of a “balanced situation”, he explained. Mr Cazeneuve also rejected the idea that France was being inflexible and provided assurances that it hoped a compromise could be found as quickly as possible. The Spanish rapporteur explained that another compromise attempt was expected to take place on Wednesday, 7 December, with a vote at the LIBE committee on Thursday.
During this hearing, the French Minister welcomed the entry into force of the new European coast and border guard agency and congratulated Parliament for having adopted the European PNR last April. He acknowledged that delays were being experienced by member states but provided assurances that France had put into place the required mechanisms.
With regard to the threat of terrorism, the French Minister explained to MEPs that 17 terrorist attempts had been foiled and 2000 French citizens were currently implicated in terrorist activities. Out of these two thousand, “1100 had gone to Iraq and Syria and out of these 1100, 400 had returned and 700 people were still there or had been killed”.
The Minister also informed MEPs that the French anti-radicalisation platform had flagged up 5000 young people in this regard. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)