At their formal meeting on Friday 12 October in Luxembourg, ministers and representatives from ministries of the interior of EU member states confirmed their interest in advancing the new rules of the Frontex agency, presented on 13 September by the European Commission, which aim in particular to provide 10,000 staff by 2020 for the European Coastguard and Border Guard Agency, the new name of Frontex (see EUROPE 12094).
The European Commission, through Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos, welcomed this support as well as the support for the revised Returns Directive and hoped that an agreement would be possible "in the coming weeks".
While there is more or less consensus on the objective of this proposal for a regulation, which should make it possible to strengthen controls at Europe's external borders by quickly identifying weak points and sending agents to them, more work is still needed on the content, in particular the phases to achieve this 'body' of 10,000 personnel and the training they must receive. Frontex currently has a rapidly mobilisable reserve of only 1,500 personnel.
The Austrian Presidency wants to make it a priority and according to a source from another country, an agreement in the Council by the end of the year is certainly "ambitious", but "not impossible". The major points of the discussion are known. The member states and even the Schengen-associated countries such as Switzerland, which must implement the rules, are distributed among those who have difficulties with the number to be achieved, those who fear that this effort to mobilise agents will have an impact on their own national capacities and those who raise sovereignty issues, such as Hungary or countries such as Spain.
Some contours still need to be defined, acknowledged Herbert Kickl, the Austrian minister of the interior, on both "skills" and "speed" to achieve this objective of 10,000 agents.
For Schengen-associated countries such as Switzerland, this target of 10,000 agents to be achieved by 2020 also raises questions, with Bern opting instead for a gradual capacity building approach.
However, on the whole, member states appreciate the stated purpose of this proposal, announced by Jean-Claude Juncker on 13 September in the State of the Union speech.
In addition to intervening at the weak points of the European border and giving Frontex agents new responsibilities in terms of identifying and examining the profile of migrants, in support of, or even in addition to, national agents, the new regulation also provides for Frontex to be able to intervene in North African countries, whereas, for the time being, the agency can only intervene in EU border countries, for example in the Balkans.
Returns
In parallel with Frontex's new mandate, ministers discussed the Returns Directive, which amends the 2010 directive and aims to tighten up certain conditions and procedures, in particular those known as 'border procedures'.
The idea is to speed up the return of rejected asylum seekers, particularly in border areas, holding areas or buffer zones, where people who do not arrive with any documents or entry permits are detained (in France for a maximum of 20 days).
A few countries mentioned practical feasibility problems, one source indicated. For those persons who are quickly refused asylum in holding areas (an area in an airport, for example) and who are not really on European territory, because they have not received an authorisation, the time limits for appealing against a return decision are also shortened.
France is one of the countries most interested in this proposal. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)