Border and coast guard agency mooted at EU commission

A European border and coast guard agency that could also help in patrolling the seas around Ireland, has been put forward by the European Commission.

The plans come more than 10 years after the first attempt to create an agency to protect the EU’s borders that was abandoned after objections from countries including Ireland and Britain.

Now, after more than 1m migrants have made their way into the EU, the ambitious plan is being relaunched.

It will replace the current Frontex body with its headquarters in Warsaw that depends mainly on help from member states to carry out limited missions, but which has, even over the past few months, had difficulty getting sufficient help.

The proposals are expected to be met with objections from a number of countries, with Hungary’s foreign minister warning this week that they considered their borders an issue of national sovereignty.

A European Border and Coast Guard to protect Europe's External Borders https://t.co/BM1XtMacnz pic.twitter.com/AWNF5GUFVf

— European Commission (@EU_Commission) December 15, 2015

As well as the new agency, the proposals also include changing the rules from occasionally checking EU citizens entering the EU to make it systematic to check against databases such as SIS, the Schengen Information System.

This will also include EU citizens in the non-Schengen borderless areas including Ireland and Britain.

Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said earlier this week that Ireland would be interested in contributing to a new agency. Ireland has just announced plans to link to SIS.

Currently, the fishing waters off Ireland are patrolled by the Irish Navy and the plan is to have national coastguards of the European body carrying out tasks.

The European Fisheries Control Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency — which currently cover western waters — will be aligned to the new European body, and the three will be able to launch joint surveillance operations.

The new agency’s human resources would be doubled to 1,000 permanent staff by 2020 and would be able to call on 1,500 national experts that would make themselves available in less than three days when requested.

They will be able to deploy to vulnerable borders without being requested to do so by the member state. This follows months of waiting for the Greeks to ask for help despite being deluged with migrants who they could not register and who were simply allowed move to other member states.

The agency will also be able to purchase its own equipment as well as being able to utilise member states’ technical equipment. At the moment it has to rely on helicopters and vessels volunteered by member states.

A monitoring and supervisory analysis centre will be established to monitor migratory flows towards and within the EU — many hundreds of thousands of migrants crossed over from Turkey to Greece, while many more crossed into Hungary without anybody being in a position to monitor or take action.