91998E1257

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1257/98 by Gerhard Hager (NI) to the Commission (21 April 1998)

Subject: Enlargement - control of external frontiers - transitional periods

One of the four basic freedoms of the European Communities is the free movement of persons, implementation of which is to be achieved, inter alia, by the abolition of internal frontier controls. At the same time, however, increasing importance is being attached to the need for appropriate measures to guarantee the security of individuals, which is to be secured through the area of freedom, security and law. Subsidiary measures to accompany the opening of the internal frontiers are seen as crucial. Efficient control of the external frontiers is repeatedly deemed to be one of those subsidiary measures.

1. Does the Commission believe that any applicant countries already meet existing EU standards for the control of external frontiers?

2. If not, what shortcomings are particularly manifest, and on which studies does the Commission base its view?

3. How does the Commission feel that it will be able to eliminate these shortcomings?

4. Does the Commission take the view that transitional periods are sensible in this connection, and of what length does it feel such transitional periods should realistically be?

In answering the above questions, please concentrate on the countries likely to figure in the first wave of accessions and use data from the period following the submission of Agenda 2000 in July 1997.

Answer given by Mr Van den Broek on behalf of the Commission (27 May 1998)

In accordance with the decisions of the Amsterdam and Luxembourg European Councils, the applicant countries must meet the Schengen standards regarding external frontier controls. The Schengen acquis is currently being formulated in the Council.

It will be possible to provide detailed answers to the questions put only when the Council has established the Schengen acquis and has examined the extent to which the applicant countries have adopted it.

Nevertheless, on the basis of what has been established so far, the Commission considers that in certain respects the applicant countries still have to make considerable efforts to ensure the security of the external frontiers.

It is primarily the responsibility of the applicant countries to eliminate the shortcomings. The Commission will, however, support such efforts with the existing Community programmes, especially PHARE.