Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-14-Speech-3-285"
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"en.20040114.6.3-285"2
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"Mr President, Members such as myself have complained over the last five years that when the Council holds debates, purportedly about asylum and immigration as a whole, it only ever talks about combating illegal immigration. I am pleased to say that Mr Pirker's report turns that tendency on its head. In a report responding to a Commission communication specifically on illegal immigration, he pays a great deal of attention to how opening up legal migration channels can help combat smuggling and trafficking. Indeed, in his report, on which I also congratulate him, there are 15 references to illegal immigration. That is nearly matched by 11 references to legal migration. This is truly welcome.
Like Mr Sørensen, I cannot share Mr Pirker's enthusiasm for a European corps of border guards. No-one seems to be clear what this means. Mr Pirker says it would just be a unit in support of national border guards and not a supranational body replacing them, but some Commission documents suggest that the ultimate aim is indeed some sort of supranational force with power over national authorities. It is dangerous to start going down this route without having a clear idea about the final destination. Obviously we need to have maximum coordination and exchanges to provide a more uniform level of security at external borders, but there is plenty more we can do about that before rushing into a centrally managed EU body that would raise all kinds of legal difficulties regarding border guards exercising power outside their own jurisdiction.
There could be very practical problems. Imagine, for example, the case of Euro-guards stationed on a border where local pay rates were lower than elsewhere, and the resentment that would create among lower-paid local staff. We are already seeing that sort of thing in the Balkans.
Finally, I urge the British Government to recognise the contradictions in its own approach. It constantly lectures other Member States on the need to strengthen external border controls, but refuses to make any constructive contribution to Schengen or to support the common immigration policy. This ambivalence cannot continue."@en1
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