Meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, on the European border and coast guard package as presented by the Commission on 15 December 2015,&nbsp;in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Matthias RUETE, Director-General, for Migration and Home Affairs European Commission, Artis PABRIKS (EPP, LV), rapporteur, Monica MACOVEI (ECR, RO), rapporteur, P&eacute;ter NIEDERM&Uuml;LLER (S&amp;D, HU), shadow rapporteur, Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), shadow rapporteur, Malin BJORK (GUE/NGL, SE), Sophia IN'T VELD (ALDE, NL), and Kristina WINBERG (EFDD, SE)

Brussels

meeting

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

KELLER, Ska (Greens/EFA, DE)

MACOVEI, Monica (ECR, RO)

BJÖRK, Malin (The Left, SE)

surveillance of the external borders of the EU (T)

NIEDERMÜLLER, Péter (S&D, HU)

European border and coast guard package as presented by the Commission on 15 December 2015: extracts from the meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

SOUNDBITE (English), Matthias RUETE, Director-General, for Migration and Home Affairs European Commission , After the experiences and the events, as much as terrorist attacks and terrorist travels are concerned, it was widely felt that we also needed to introduce the systematic check on the external borders of EU citizens, either entering or exiting the EU. We have made this proposal. We feel that this is possible in as much as airports are concerned. As much as land border and sea border are concerned, we feel that given the volume and the complications in terms of controls there may be a justification to have some temporary derogations in as much as land and sea borders are concerned, which should be based on the risk assessment. Again here the European Border and Cross Guard Agency will play a role.

SOUNDBITE (English), Artis PABRIKS (EPP, LV), rapporteur, We cannot image to even have open borders if we do not have controlled borders. So we have to start with this and then we can proceed step by step further.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Monica MACOVEI (ECR, RO), rapporteur, (in the EC text) Is not clear, very often it talks about the EU borders , then it refers to citizens security for EU citizens, but we are all citizens of the EU, even member states who are not members of the Schengen zone such as Romania, Bulgaria or Croatia, so if you refer to the external borders of the EU, there is only one and that have to include all the member states.

SOUNDBITE (English), P&#233;ter NIEDERM&#220;LLER (S&amp;D, HU), shadow rapporteur, It is a very important issue and I think we need a more integrated agency and more integrated border management. At the same time, of course, security of citizens is a crucial issue. But on the other side we don 't need a politics of producing fear and a politics of collective stigmatisation. This is not the right way. We need a balance between freedom and security.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), shadow rapporteur, There is also this issue of the article 18 that gives FRONTEX the right to intervene in member states against their will. This is quite problematic especially as we are wondering on who to read that together with the article 20 where the same member state that is supposed to be unwilling is than supposed to give instruction for FRONTEX mission so we assume that a member state that relay does not want to have the FRONTEX mission but then is still supposed to give instruction to the FRONTEX mission, and therefore is still supposed to be responsible for whatever happens on its own territory, of course, as that it goes by international law. So that seems to be a contradiction which is not easy to resolve.

SOUNDBITE (English), Malin BJ&#214;RK (GUE/NGL, SE), If we are going to have shared board management, we have to have something shared to protect and take care of, and that for me is not the having to show or not our ID cards, but it is whether we share responsibly of hosting refugees that are seeking protection in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (ALDE, NL), I don't see why suddenly all of this has to be done in relation to foreign fighters, which are actually EU citizens. I thought that this is why we have EU-PNR for. And if you know who they are, than why do you need to check all the other citizens. This is simply not a very credible justification.

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Kristina WINBERG (EFDD, SE), In Sweden we come across the problem those third countries like Afghanistan refusing to receive people that have been legally deported from Sweden. How is this travel document going to actually help us dealing with countries that refuse these returns procedure? Finally which countries do you really think are going to accept these new travel conditions and circumstances ?