WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2674/98 by Gerhard HAGER to the Commission. Assistance to enable applicant countries to meet the Schengen criteria
Date: 1998-09-01
Institutions: European Parliament, HAGER
Subjects: Austria, Central and Eastern European countries, EU police cooperation, EU programme, Schengen Agreement, border control, enlargement of the Union, external border of the EU, vocational training

C 135/20

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

14.5.1999

5. According to the Commission’s estimate, what percentage of expenditure on all Community

programmes is being used to assist the applicant countries?

6. Austria is among the more recent Schengen Member States, and the cost of meeting the criteria
regarding external border controls was particularly high because of its location (its long Schengen
external border). Has Austria received any assistance in meeting the cost from Community
programmes?

(1) OJ C 354, 19.11.1998, p. 85.

(1999/C 135/024)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2674/98

by Gerhard Hager (NI) to the Commission

(1 September 1998)

Subject: Assistance to enable applicant countries to meet the Schengen criteria

It has been repeatedly stressed that, if they are to qualify for membership, applicant countries must take
over the acquis communautaire and hence the EU standards governing external border checks. The
effectiveness of the applicant countries’ border policing is currently attracting increasingly voluble
criticism, and the doubts whether the above-mentioned criterion is being fulfilled are mounting. That was
why, when it addressed Parliament in Strasbourg on 15 July 1998, the Presidency-in-Office of the Council
expressly called on the Commission to seek ways of helping the applicant countries to secure their
borders, pointing out that the external borders of the 11 countries in question, placed end to end, were
6 600 km long and it was necessary to comprehend that order of magnitude.

1.

2.

How will the Commission comply with the above request?

Is it already making practical preparations? How much funding is it envisaging?

3. Which budget headings should be used to provide the appropriations, and what legal bases will be
invoked to implement the corresponding expenditure?

How can such aid be justified, given that other Member States have recently had to rely solely on
4.
their own resources in order to meet the Schengen criteria, even though, as far as Austria on its own is
concerned − to name but one example − the external border as defined for Schengen purposes is 2 400 km
long?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-2126/98 and E-2674/98
given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(11 November 1998)

Declaration No 44 annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam states that, upon the date of entry into force of that
Treaty, the Council shall adopt all the necessary measures referred to in Article 2 of the Protocol
integrating the Schengen acquis into the framework of the European Union, and in particular the Decisions
defining the Schengen acquis and breaking down its components between the first and third pillars.
Preparatory work is under way on these measures. The Council Decisions mentioned above will be
published in the Official Journal.

Pursuant to the Schengen acquis on the implementation of the Schengen provisions and to Article 2(2) of
the Schengen Protocol, the Council, acting with the unanimity of the Schengen members, will decide
whether applicant countries have implemented the Schengen acquis and can take part in the area without
internal frontiers. This decision will be taken after ensuring that all the preconditions are met, including
controls and surveillance of external borders in accordance with Schengen standards.

In December 1994 the European Council meeting at Essen decided, as part of the preparation of the
associated countries for accession to the Union, to extend cooperation with these countries to third-pillar
matters (including border controls, asylum, immigration, police and customs cooperation, and judicial
cooperation). To implement this decision, the Commission requested a report on the needs of the countries