Brussels, 26/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is proposing to draw together, in a Community Code, all provisions on crossing external and internal borders of the European Union by individuals. The draft regulation, ratified on Wednesday by the College constitutes the legislative aspect to the implementation of the European border policy, whereas the future Border Management Agency, which is expected to be set up in 2005, is the operational side of it. In the long term, the European Commission is planning to set up a European Border guard.
The Community code will bring together into a single draft, with amendments, the Common External Borders Manual, adopted with the setting up of the Schengen Agreement, as well as other provisions on borders from other sources such as the Schengen Agreement, Common Consular Instructions etc. The proposal for the Community code will deal with external and internal borders. For the former, the proposal takes into account the most recent drafts approved by the Council (such as the separate queues at land borders, the getting rid of passports) and proposals for small scale border traffic. For the latter, the Commission keeps most of Article 2 of the Schengen Convention, which until now, has dealt with the issue by allowing Member States to decide unilaterally whether borders needed re-establishing "when public order or national security demands". The Commission is also planning to include the re-establishing, in a simultaneous and coordinated way, the possibility of setting up all internal borders when faced with exceptional threats, notably from terrorists.
The body of the text is purely legislative, while the practical modalities are included in very long annexes, which contain the list of all the authorised points for crossing external European Union borders. The Commission is later intending to propose an authentic practical guide, once discussions on this proposed have move forward. The Commission is hoping that this will enable the "ambiguities" in the Common Manual to be rectified, which was once the base of Community law and a practical guide. According to a questionnaire sent out in July 2003 to Member States, "the great majority" of the latter are in favour of separating the legal instrument from the practical guide and going beyond a simple tinkering exercise, indicated the Commission in support of its proposal.
This Community code on borders should not, a priori, affect the United Kingdom and Ireland, which decided to remain outside the Schengen area but they might want to participate. Once the text is adopted, Denmark will have six months to decide whether it wants to apply it. The new Member States are not expected to benefit from the lifting of the borders before 2006 but they are already subject to obligations regarding border controls. Therefore, they will be compelled to apply the part of the code involving external borders. Iceland and Norway, which are part of the Schengen agreement, will be associated with its adoption and will apply it.