MIGRASYL

News on migration and asylum from around the region - Nouvelles de la région sur les questions de migration et d'asile

Thursday, November 20, 2014

[Frontex] EU Observer - Supra-national border guard system on EU radar

19 November 2014

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is looking into long-term plans to create an entirely new EU border guard service with an independent command and control centre.
While details are scant, a EU source said setting up such a supra-national border agency that goes beyond the remit of the current EU border agency Frontex would be twenty years in the making.
“We are talking about 2030 or 2035 so this is really a long term development,” noted the contact.
A commission financed feasibility study completed over the summer has put forward a three-phase approach in creating the so-called European System of Border Guards.
Each successive phase is a step forward in centralising control and surveillance of the EU’s borders to an agency manned by EU personnel, which is independent from the respective national authorities.
Phase one calls for greater interaction between member states and the EU in terms of co-operation and decision-making on border control issues.
Phase two places emphasis on shifting decision-making to the EU level. An intermediary European border guard corps would be introduced at this stage.
The final phase is the most far-reaching.