Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-08-Speech-1-136"
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"en.20040308.11.1-136"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, on 11 November of last year, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Council regulation establishing a European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders, thus responding to the calls made at the Thessaloniki and Brussels European Councils.
Historically, the nature of Schengen cooperation was purely intergovernmental but, with the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, responsibility for managing external borders was transferred to the Community. Creating an agency does not, therefore, mean that Commission powers are being delegated to an independent Community body. The Member States are simply transferring some of their powers to the Community through the intermediary of the Agency. The Agency will, therefore, be responsible for the operational activities today carried out by what is known as the ‘Common Unit’, which operates exclusively on behalf of the Council, or of the Member States themselves, through their
control centres for land sea and air borders.
The Commission is therefore of the view that this proposal is an important measure for making the management of the Member States’ external borders more ‘Communitarian’. The Agency will not directly employ the Community political model, and nor will it have powers to enforce the law. This is not about creating a European border guard. The Agency will support the operational implementation, under the auspices of the competent Member State authorities, of the common rules on external border control that make up the Schengen
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The Agency’s main tasks are to coordinate operational cooperation between Member States, to assist Member States in training their border guards, to undertake risk assessments, to monitor progress of research in the field of the control and surveillance of external borders, to provide enhanced operational and technical assistance to Member States that need it and to coordinate operational cooperation between Member States in removing third-country nationals. The Agency will be able to set up its own specialised sections, thus incorporating the work now carried out by land, air and sea centres, where these exist. As regards funding for the Agency’s activity, its income will consist of a grant from the Community budget, a financial contribution from third countries involved in the implementation, application and development of the Schengen
namely Norway and Iceland, and monies charged for services the Agency provides to Member States.
The Commission believes that the Agency must take up its responsibilities at the beginning of 2005. It will have a staff of thirty and a budget, initially, of EUR six million in 2005 and EUR ten million in 2006. The Agency will have a Management Board which would, under the Commission proposal, consist of twelve representatives of the Member States, appointed by the Council and two representatives of the Commission. The Agency’s operation will be managed by an Executive Director appointed by the Management Board at the proposal of the Commission.
Article 66 of the Treaty will provide the Agency’s legal basis. In light of the variable geometry that can be applied under Title IV of the Treaty, Norway and Iceland, as Schengen States, will be involved in this regulation. Denmark can participate, in line with the conditions set out in the protocol annexed to the Treaty. As regards the position of the United Kingdom and of Ireland, the Commission is in favour of including them in a way that enables operational cooperation between the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Schengen States, whilst fully complying with the provisions of the Treaty.
The Council has been discussing this proposal since November and, although it has reached political agreement, it has made some amendments that I shall now summarise: the Council would like the Agency’s Management Board to be composed of one representative per Member State, including Norway and Iceland, and of two representatives of the Commission. Similarly, the Council would like to limit the Agency’s powers to remove illegally-residing third-country nationals. The Council has also added a new task, which is to facilitate operational cooperation between Member States and third countries.
It is the firm intention of the Irish Presidency to ensure that the Commission’s proposal is adopted before the end of its mandate. The Commission supports all efforts, by both Parliament and the Council, to ensure that the legislative process is concluded as swiftly as possible so that the Agency can take up its responsibilities in January 2005."@en1
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