Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, for me the report before us today and this agenda item are among the most difficult of the past legislative period. Not because the report is so wide ranging, but because the procedure has proved to be extremely difficult. Since the Kingdom of Spain’s initiative to oblige carriers to communicate passenger data was presented, that is since the first document appeared early last year, every month has brought unofficial new versions with the promise of another official one shortly. That dragged on really until the start of this year and since we are coming to the end of this legislative period, I presented a report at the beginning of February, based on the old proposal. Then in the middle of February, the Council suddenly produced a new document as a result of which I then had to prepare a completely new report. To the point in hand, my group agrees with the starting point of saying that it may make sense to oblige carriers to communicate data on persons entering the EU from third countries to the competent border control authorities in advance. As presented, however, what the Council has produced is technically far from convincing. It is true that the Council went on to correct itself in many respects. Originally, for example, it wanted airlines to be obliged to report to the authorities anyone who failed to use their return ticket within 48 hours of the planned date. That means that any of us could be suspected of staying somewhere we were not entitled simply because we had not used our ticket, at least not at the planned time. On some points the Council has recognised that it is on the wrong track, but in my opinion it has still not provided the necessary tool. To this day, for example, there has been no dialogue with the carriers concerned as to how this might actually be done technically, what it will cost and who in the end will pay for it. I can only point out that if we want to prevent illegal immigration, we are dealing mainly with third countries that are not exactly wealthy. Think about those third countries, we also know that checking in there is in many cases still done manually, the boarding card is not printed out by computer, but you are given a pre-printed card and the seat number is stuck on to it. In those cases, airlines would be involved in considerable expense. I think that if we have such expectations we must first seek a dialogue with the carriers about how that might be jointly organised. Secondly, it does not explain at all convincingly whether the border control authorities will really be able to do anything useful with the data provided. In other words, will it make controls easier and more effective? This question has not been examined at all, either in committee meetings or in the document. Moreover, this document contains no justification at all, the Council initiative is unreasoned, there is neither a general justification nor a detailed justification for the individual articles. One very central point for which I have still not been given a satisfactory explanation is the question of whether the data collected really will make for more effective controls in the country of entry. That is why my report and the initiative having been rejected in committee, my group will be abstaining in the vote tomorrow, because our position is that basically we find the idea interesting and it may be expedient, but the technical side of it must be cleanly worked. So far, this Council initiative has not done that, and that is why I do not believe we should continue any further down this path. It is my sincere wish that we should take a final vote on this initiative tomorrow and not refer it back to committee. Tomorrow, at any rate, I shall not be proposing that we do this. I believe the road we should take together is that the Commission should submit a sound proposal based on the original Council document (it has already suggested as much itself in a committee meeting) and that we should then have an informed discussion and find a sensible solution.

Political group: PPE-DE