Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-13-Speech-2-247"
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"en.20071113.29.2-247"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. I too am extremely satisfied with the outcome of this debate.
In order to ensure that no such envy exists and that Europe is loved by its neighbours, let us accompany the enlargement of Schengen with a policy of friendship, using visas and greater freedom of movement as a strategic instrument.
The result which is within our reach today clearly shows that the countries about to join Schengen on 21 and 22 December, and their citizens, really do deserve this Christmas present, as it were. They deserve it because, whereas we have worked together over the past 12 to 15 months to overcome certain technical difficulties - and the Portuguese Presidency cannot be praised highly enough - they have played their part too. They have overcome difficulties and shortcomings - in airports, at border posts and in staff training - which just 12, 13 or 14 months ago seemed hard to overcome.
That is why they really do deserve what has charmingly been called a Christmas present, and I can say so having visited a number of border posts in person, together with many colleagues - Ministers of the Interior - who showed me the enormous progress made between one visit and the next. I believe that this development is of huge political importance for Europe and has a major social impact, in other words on the citizens. It is of huge political importance because, from 21 December onwards, each Member State will regard another Member State's external borders as its own. I, as an Italian, will regard the far-off border between Poland and Ukraine as my own. That will be my country’s border: such is the political impact of this decision that Europe has managed to take within what is a very reasonable period of time.
Then there is the social impact, in other words the impact on our citizens’ daily lives which, if I may say so, even goes beyond the symbolic effect of no longer having to queue up at border posts. It means that every law-abiding European citizen will feel at home in any other country of the European Union. It means freedom of movement and not having to show one's passport; it does not merely mean not having to queue up for border checks, but rather feeling that European citizenship has become a reality.
Many of you have raised the issue of security, and I entirely agree with what Mr Magalhães has just said. Security and freedom must obviously go hand-in-hand. The more we promote the expansion of this right, this great freedom, the more we must do to prevent criminals from making the most of this great freedom to step up their own dealings and unlawful activities.
That is why this Europe, this large Schengen area, will not be a fortress but certainly will protect EU citizens from criminal comings and goings. Furthermore, it is obvious for this reason that the Schengen system - currently the ‘one for all’ Schengen system and soon to be Schengen II - must be equipped with the best technology. Criminals tend to evade controls, of course, and we must have the technological instruments to prevent that from happening, such as the use of biometrics, showing full respect for everyone's freedom but in order - as it were - to ward off temptation.
One last word: I was struck by what has been said about Europe's neighbours. Clearly, an enlarged Schengen area must not engender the risk of shutting out those countries which now adjoin the expanded Schengen borders. As you know, we have to use this Schengen system to monitor and administer 80 000 km of EU external borders, and Frontex will play an ever greater role here. Just think what an enormous task that is, but we have to perform it. Well, this must not happen to the detriment of our neighbours, of the relationships some have mentioned: the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.
We have therefore embarked on a new approach, and I would once again ask you, the European Parliament, now that you are giving the final green light to this action, to confirm your support for the policy which I proposed to the Council and which the Council of Ministers has endorsed. It is a new-style visa policy, aimed at facilitating the movement of honest people, accompanied by measures on document security, personal identification and the use of biometrics, but which offers citizens now living extremely close to but not within this European area a tangible opportunity to go occasionally to the theatre in Vienna or to see the Coliseum in Rome or to visit Lisbon, without the enormous difficulty and expense currently involved in obtaining a visa.
The new approach is as follows. Let us make visa policy an instrument of our neighbourhood policy, and let us do so at the same time as enlarging the Schengen area. This, in my opinion, would hopefully be another political, purely political, step; it is neither a bureaucratic nor a narrowly legal matter. It is a political message that we can send to other states and their citizens, who are watching us from Europe’s neighbourhood but do not need to look on in envy because we are free to move around while they cannot even attend a university course in a European city."@en1
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