Brussels, 06/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - So as better to combat illegal immigration and provide the EU with the means to combat all forms of internal and external threats that terrorism weighs on the Member States of the European Union,, including the security of people, in particular in the perspective of enlargement, the European Commission is to adopt a communication on 7 May entitled "Towards an integrated management of the external borders of EU Member states". With this communication, the Commission recommends structuring actions in the field and assuring their continuity in the framework of a common integrated external border management policy. It considers that, in the short and medium-term, the following directions should be followed:
1. A Common corpus of legislation concerning crossing external borders. According to the Commission, the measures to take are: - a reshaping of the Common manual of external borders, by introducing certain good practices inspired from the Catalogue of Good Schengen Practices; - creating a practical memento that may be used by border guards, as well as being available electronically. This memento would consist in a complete compilation of control and surveillance rules stemming from the relevant legal instruments; - devise principles and adopt common measures for "small border traffic", especially in view of enlargement, and on the basis of an initiative that the Commission should soon be presenting: - proposal for an institutional and legal framework in which the agents of a future European border guard corps would act.
2. Common and operational mechanism for dialogue and co-operation. This mechanism would rest on two instruments: an Common Body of external border guards - still to be created - involving border guard officers of Member States and representatives of different services carrying out missions, they too contributing to the security of the external borders; b) a permanent process for exchanging and treating information and intelligence - that too yet to be created.
3. Common, integrated risk assessment will be an essential component in order to tackle all three strategies in the defence of external borders at the same time, namely third countries, the external border and inside the common free circulation area. In the short term, the common body of external border guards will draw up a common table for analysing risks and in the medium term, it will monitor changes in risk on a constant basis in order to draw practical conclusions in terms of deploying personnel and equipment along external borders.
4. Providing the common policy for integrated external border management with staff and inter-operational equipment. According to the Commission, the common body of external border guards will develop a common plank for the training of EU border guards and encouraging the common use of mobile surveillance equipment. In the medium term, a radar or satellite based common external border monitoring system (using the Galileo system) will need to be set up, with better coordination at EU level for fixed infrastructure for monitoring external borders.
5. Cost-sharing between the EU and Member States with a view to creating a European Border Control Guard Body. The Commission argues that in the short term, it will have to be worked out how EC funding of policies for managing the external borders will operate, covered by part V of the EC Treaty. The Commission will make an initial assessment of the financial implications of the planned measures. In the medium term, a European Border Control Guard Body will need to be set up, whose first mission will be the "common surveillance" of the most sensitive areas, such as maritime frontiers, but which will also carry out surveillance missions at border crossings. The Commission will assess the legal and institutional nature of this structure; - establish complementarity of action with the customs services and synergies for achieving large-scale saving in EC financing for the management of external borders.
The president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and Commissioner for Justice and Internal Affairs Antonio Vitorino are to present the communication to the press.