Brussels: Europe’s refugee crisis has revived plans for a controversial pan-EU border and coast guard force to patrol countries like Greece and Italy which are struggling to cope with the wave of migrants.
But analysts suspect frontline nations will resist ceding sovereign border control rights to other European Union states and that Brussels will have to settle for a far less ambitious proposal.
“This is a little bit like calling for a European army. It’s a nice idea but it’s a very long shot,” Marc Pierini of the Brussels-based think tank Carnegie Europe, who is a former EU ambassador, told said.
“What we can hope for is a mechanism by which national coast guards would be coordinated, reinforced with EU financial means, but essentially leaving the task to member states,” he added.
Indeed the idea of German, French or Belgian officers joining their Greek counterparts on boats plying the waters around the Aegean islands or at border crossings may be too much for most Greeks.
But Europeans are groping for a coordinated solution to the worst migration crisis since the Second World War, which has seen more than half a million people enter the bloc this year, sparked largely by the war in Syria.
Most come by sea, while some cross Turkey’s land borders with Greece and Bulgaria. And a growing number are coming by land over the Balkans after first landing in Greece and then moving on to Hungary and Croatia.
Brussels sources said the European Commission, the executive of the 28-nation bloc, is consulting with member states about drafting a plan by the end of the year for a European System of Border Guards.
The plan, launched by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker last month, is to be debated next Thursday by EU home affairs ministers.
EU leaders at an emergency summit last week threw their weight behind calls from Polish European Council President Donald Tusk to “regain control” over the external borders.
AFP
