WRITTEN QUESTION P-0122/03 by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission. Schengen Agreement: Member States' obligations.
Date: 2003-01-21
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Community acquis, Schengen Agreement, application of EU law, border control, external border of the EU

10.7.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 161 E/179

(2003/C 161 E/184)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0122/03

by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission

(21 January 2003)

Subject: Schengen Agreement: Member States’ obligations

Article 6 of the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement lays down that checks at external
borders fall within the scope of national powers and national law and are to be carried out taking account
of the interests of all Contracting Parties. In Article 6(4) the Contracting Parties further undertake to deploy
enough suitably qualified officers to carry out checks and surveillance along external borders.

What conditions must be met so that the undertaking that there will be ‘enough suitably qualified officers’
for checks and surveillance along external borders can be considered fulfilled?

Is the Commission aware of cases in which Member States have failed to meet the obligations referred to
in Article 6? If so, which Member States are concerned?

What steps can the European Union take if individual Member States fail to comply with this Agreement?

Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 2003)

Under the Schengen acquis, each Member State is required to deploy enough suitably qualified officers to
carry out checks and surveillance along external borders, in accordance with the standards laid down in
the acquis.

It is impossible to give a general definition of ‘enough suitably qualified officers’. The formulation needs to
be spelled out according to the nature of the border in question (cid:1) land, air or sea (cid:1) and other factors
such as its geographical position, the type and volume of cross-border flows of people, and the time of
year.

The Commission would remind the Honourable Member that the Schengen Evaluation Group, of which it
is a member, checks both whether Member States wishing to join the borderless Schengen area meet the
necessary conditions for the abolition of checks at internal borders, including those relating to effective
checks and surveillance at external borders, and whether those Member States already implementing the
Schengen ‘acquis’ are meeting the resultant obligations satisfactorily.

In the past, the Schengen Evaluation Group has sometimes made recommendations with a view to
optimising the use of the available resources or adjusting staff numbers.

the checks carried out by the Group so far has identified any Member States
However, none of
implementing the Schengen ‘acquis’ which are failing to meet the obligation to deploy enough suitably
qualified officers to carry out checks and surveillance along external borders.

In this context, the Commission would also point out that on 13 June 2002 the Justice and Home Affairs
Council adopted a plan for the management of external borders, comprising a series of measures and
actions to improve checks and surveillance.
the plan will be evaluated by the
Thessaloniki European Council.

Implementation of