WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2673/98 by Gerhard HAGER to the Council. Assistance to applicant countries as regards external border checks
Date: 1998-09-01
Institutions: European Parliament, HAGER
Subjects: European standard, accession to the European Union, administrative cooperation, application of EU law, border control, customs cooperation, exchange of information, external border of the EU, third country, twinning













EUR-Lex - 91998E2673 - EN






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91998E2673

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2673/98 by Gerhard HAGER to the Council. Assistance to applicant countries as regards external border checks  


Official Journal C 142 , 21/05/1999 P. 0031 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-2673/98by Gerhard Hager (NI) to the Council(1 September 1998)Subject: Assistance to applicant countries as regards external border checksIt 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. What weaknesses does the Presidency see in the external border checks and how serious a problem does it consider them to be?2. What specific forms of help is the Council proposing to offer?3. How much funding is it envisaging, and which budget headings should be used to provide it?4. How can such aid be justified, given that other Member States have recently had to rely solely on 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?Reply(18/19 January 1999)The Council is aware of the difficulties raised by the Honourable Member concerning the effectiveness of applicant countries' border checks. It is clearly in the interest of the European Union to ensure that countries applying for membership apply the same standards as the Member States, as indicated in the Union's position communicated to the applicant countries in March 1998 at the opening of the accession process and accession negotiations. To this end, a seminar which a number of applicant countries were invited to take part in was organised in October 1998. This seminar was the first of a series of events designed to give all the applicant countries the opportunity of transposing into their legislation the major provisions regarding border checks, in stages if necessary, but in any event before accession. Under the ODYSSEUS programme, several projects involving cooperation and the exchange of information on external borders with the applicant countries have been adopted. In addition, the areas of Justice and Home Affairs are included among the priorities identified in the accession partnerships, adopted in March, and among the twinning arrangements established between Member States' administrations and those of the applicant countries.The Council is not in a position to reply to Questions 2 and 3 put by the Honourable Member, as they fall within the competence of the Commission in the framework of the implementation of the PHARE programme.