Debate on the decision adopted on European Border and Coast Guard package during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg. Opening statements by Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

TIMMERMANS, Frans (NL, EC)

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

AVRAMOPOULOS, Dimitris (EL, EC)

external border of the EU

surveillance of the external borders of the EU (T)

Decision adopted on European Border and Coast Guard package: extracts from the opening statements

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Illegal entries into the Union have reached 1.5 million this year. That is almost double the total of the last five years. It clearly reveals a significant failure in how we manage and protect our external border.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights: Among the Commission's proposals today is therefore an amendment to the Schengen Border Code, so that everyone crossing the external border, including EU citizens, is systematically checked against common databases. This will help ensure that someone who is a security threat will be stopped at the external border, upon arrival or leaving.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights: The common European Border and Coast Guard will ensure the integrated management of the Union's external borders, in line with the objective set out in Article 77 of the Treaty. The principle underlying our proposal is one of shared responsibility. In an area without internal borders, managing external border effectively is a matter of common interest.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights: The national border guards will be supported, monitored and when necessary reinforced, by a European Border and Coast Guard Agency. The Agency will be able to deploy equipment and a standing reserve of at least 1,500 border guards from Member States, instead of relying on ad-hoc calls for voluntary contributions. All this should help correct many of the weaknesses that have hindered Frontex over the years. The aim of this new integrated border management architecture is to prevent uncontrollable situations and to strengthen our collective ability to deal with crisis situations where a section of the external border suddenly comes under strong pressure.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frans TIMMERMANS, First Vice-President of the EC in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights: Europe will provide protection for those who need it. But those who have no right to be here cannot stay. Today what we propose is an operational solution at EU level &ndash; a dedicated Return Office within the new Agency working with Member States and third countries to organize return operations and flights. I hope for the support of this House for these important proposals and that we can make progress quickly.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, We reinforce the obligations of cooperation and information sharing between the Agency and national authorities. We set up a monitoring and risk analysis centre which will go hand in hand with the reliable and up to date risk analysis, including on relevant internal security threats.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship: The most important element of the new agency is that it goes beyond what FRONTEX was able to do but that we don't replace member states' responsibilities and definitely not their sovereignty.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship: Where deficiencies persist and national action is not taken, the Commission, in cooperation with the member states, will be able to adopt decisions determining that the situation at a particular section of the external borders requires urgent action and entrusting the agency with the task of carrying out appropriate operational measures.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship: The ultimate objective is that through stronger preventive actions we can precisely avoid emergency situations where such interventions would be necessary.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship: The agency should be able to initiate return operations and to assist member states with the acquisition of travel documents.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Member of the EC in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship: We are proposing to establish a new European travel document for the return of third countries nationals that should be promoted in the contest of readmission agreements and should ensure a wider acceptance by third countries.