Luxembourg, 20/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - EU home ministers agreed to make rapid border intervention teams available for member states that are experiencing sudden and massive influxes of illegal immigrants at their borders, the EU Presidency said on Friday. “Citizens expect Europe to ensure effective protection at common external borders. We have made an extremely important step forward towards this”, the German minister for home affairs, Wolfgang Schäuble, said on Friday. The agreement on the regulation establishing Rapid Border Intervention Teams (RABIT) will allow the European border agency (Frontex) to have a strategic reserve of around 450 agents who can be rapidly sent to meet sudden influxes of illegal migrants. The EP Committee on Civil Liberties had endorsed the regulation on 11 April (EUROPE 9405). The political agreement thus reached will be put to plenary vote in April in Strasbourg (first reading). After the vote, the Council will be able to make a final agreement official. “We do not have to wait for June to see this mechanism set in place”, he said. Commissioner Franco Frattini also welcomed the agreement reached in less than one year, saying: “This is a successful example of EU solidarity”. Ministers confirmed, moreover, the establishment by Frontex of a central inventory of technical equipment, known as the “toolbox”. This inventory contains technical equipment for the control and surveillance of external borders, material that the member states are willing to temporarily make available to another member state at that state's request. For now, the “toolbox” contains 21 aircraft, 27 helicopters and 116 boats, as well as a long list of other technical equipment. The Council then discussed the creation of a European Patrols Network at the southern maritime borders of the EU. This network of a permanent kind will be coordinated by Frontex and launched end May on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, reported Ilkka Laitinen, the agency's director. Another matter tackled at the Council meeting was the possible establishment of a European Surveillance System - first of all at external maritime borders. It is foreseen that, later, satellite surveillance could be integrated into the system. By way of conclusion, the ministers looked at the initiatives that Mr Frattini plans to launch in May to combat illegal immigration. Firstly, there was a communication on the migratory volume from the East (Asia and the Black Sea region), and then a proposal for a directive to combat undeclared employment. (bc)