Europe to strengthen control at European Union external borders

Dominating the agenda is the refugee crisis.

Describing the talks with Ahmet Davutoglu and nine other European Union leaders ahead of a broader summit of the bloc as positive, Merkel also said discussions would continue on a resettlement scheme under which European Union countries could choose to take on fixed numbers of Syrian refugees from Turkey.

The European Union summit had approved the idea of the establishment of a supranational border guard agency, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Friday after the first day of the summit meeting. “Border protection is and should be in the first place the domain of national states”, he said. Greek authorities say two people have drowned and 83 others have been rescued after a wooden boat crammed with refugees sank in the Aegean Sea off the eastern Greek island of Lesbos. “This means that in the future Europe will not remain vulnerable because the Schengen border is insufficiently protected”, Interfax cited him as saying.

But he warned that any failure of this new border and coast guard agency project might only lead to “another, but I am afraid, equally painful solution”. In this connection it has been chose to urgently consider the proposal on the establishment of the border guard agency, he said.

Defending Frontex’s new powers to send border guards to a country even without invitation, he said Frontex would not decide on such action by itself but have to get the green light from the European Commission Highlighting difficulties in receiving resources from the 28 EU countries, Frenchman Leggeri said that out of the 775 additional border guards he called for in early October, he had so far got around 450.

The leaders are meeting just one month after the Paris attacks that left 130 people dead, with some of those involved known to have travelled back from Syria, amongst refugees.

On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed to establish a European Border and Coast Guard to strengthen EU external border control, aimed at preventing the uncontrolled flow of migrants into the bloc.

Many of those feeling conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa have arrived via the Greek islands, via Turkey, and they are still pouring into Greece in their thousands daily.

The leaders also stressed that for the integrity of Schengen to be safeguarded, “it is indispensable to regain control over the external borders”. “Ensuring access to asylum is an obligation, not an option.” said Iverna McGowan, Acting Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.