92001E2747

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2747/01

by Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(10 October 2001)

Subject: Loopholes in Schengen checks

The police in Södermalm, Stockholm, report that in the summer of 2001 a number of individuals were caught who had entered the Schengen area via Paris but without entry stamps in their passports. For example, a policeman stopped two people from Chile who had flown from Santiago via Paris to Arlanda airport by Air France. They only had exit stamps from Santiago. One of them had been barred from entry to the Schengen area. At the checkpoints in Arlanda there have also been cases of US citizens arriving in Sweden via Paris without having been checked at Charles de Gaulle airport.

According to information obtained by the Stockholm police, Paris and Milan lack both the staff, equipment and procedures to comply with the Schengen agreement. It is quite likely that international criminals have noted and exploited this fact.

What is the Council doing to deal with this problem?

Reply

(12 February 2002)

The Council informs the Honourable Member that measures to improve the effectiveness of Member States' control of external borders have mostly been drawn up within the framework of the Schengen cooperation which, since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, has been incorporated into EU legislation. These measures are carried out by the Member States themselves, but the Council monitors actual implementation through its relevant subordinate bodies.

The Schengen acquis, as part of EU legislation, contains provisions on the control of external borders. These provisions are contained in the Common Manual for border control. However, it does not include provisions regarding the number of personnel or the type of equipment required for efficient border control which is left to the competence of the Member States.

The Council can, however, monitor Member States' implementation of the Schengen acquis via the Standing Committee on the evaluation and implementation of Schengen created by a

decision of the former Schengen Executive Committee on 16 September 1998. One of the tasks of this Committee is to ensure that the Schengen acquis is properly applied by all Member States implementing the Schengen convention. The Committee will undertake an evaluation of the Schengen acquis in France early in 2002.