Posted on 12/15/2015 11:04:40 AM PST by csvset
The European Commission unveiled plans for a new external border and coastguard force that will be able to intervene even without the host country's consent on Tuesday, saying it had to restore EU security threatened by the migration crisis.
The new agency will have a rapid reaction force of 1,500 guards and a "right to intervene" in European Union nations that are either overwhelmed by a migration influx or are deemed to be failing to secure their frontiers.
With 1 million mainly Syrian refugees and migrants set to arrive in Europe by the end of this year, the record movement has raised fears for the future of the EU's passport-free Schengen zone. The November 13 Paris attacks, which were planned by a cell in Brussels, have also raised fresh security concerns.
But some member states in the 28-nation EU are hostile to the idea of ceding sovereignty over their own borders to bureaucrats in Brussels.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the new force could take over management of national borders in only "exceptional situations" in which a member state was unable to cope on its own.
"This is a safety net which, like all safety nets, we hope will never need to be used. But it is essential to restore the credibility of our border management system," Timmermans said, as he presented the plan to the European Parliament.
Brussels also set out plans to resettle some refugees directly from Turkey, the main transit point for most of the refugees arriving in Europe.
'Step in right direction'
Germany and other EU countries have, in the last few weeks, reintroduced temporary border controls to cope with the crisis, the largest of its kind since World War II.
The fear is that if those controls become permanent, the 26-country Schengen zone that encapsulates one of the EU's core principle of freedom of movement would collapse, undermining the idea of a single, united Europe.
The new border guard system will replace the EU's largely toothless Frontex agency, which has failed to tackle the flows of people from Turkey to Greece and through the western Balkans, mainly because of a lack of manpower.
EU leaders will discuss the new plan -- which has been drawn up by the Commission, the EU's powerful executive arm -- at a summit on Thursday and Friday, said European Council President Donald Tusk.
"We must regain control over our external borders to stem migratory flows and to preserve Schengen," Tusk said in his invitation letter to leaders.
The border guard plan won the approval of European Parliament President Martin Schulz, who said the EU had to be able to act when member states could not meet their responsibilities.
"That the EU creates common instruments to help and intervene, that is completely normal. The European Commission's proposals ... are a step in the right direction," Schulz told AFP.
Refugee rights
But the plan faces being severely watered down by EU member states before the as-yet-unnamed agency comes into being.
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said Monday that the replacement of Warsaw-based Frontex "by a structure that is independent of member states is shocking".
Rights group Amnesty International said the EU border guard plan "must not be at the expense of migrant and refugee rights".
The new border system is just one part of the EU's multi-pronged strategy aimed at stemming the unprecedented flow of refugees and migrants seeking a new life in Europe.
Many of the other measures are struggling to have an effect.
A controversial plan to relocate refugees around the EU to relieve the pressure on frontline states like Greece and Italy has so far seen only a few hundred people transferred out of a planned total of 160,000.
The EU has, meanwhile, been accused of pandering to Turkey despite concerns over human rights, signing a €3 billion ($3.2 billion) aid deal and agreeing to relaunch the country's moribund EU membership process.
In exchange Turkey, which is home to more than 2 million Syrian refugees, agreed to try to limit the numbers of people travelling to Europe and to tackle the human traffickers who profit from desperate people trying to make the journey.
Reichstag fire.
bookmark
How about that, they created a problem by brow beating nations to take refugees, and now they are the answer to the problem they created.
Sounds like a means to stop member states from acting so that the EU/Brussels force can also not act, to allow more muslimeification of Europe. The member states can not-act while saving face.
Idiots. Should have learned something from the US Civil war. Once "the Union" is given power, it never willingly gives it up.
The EU was a typical BAD SOCIALIST IDEA from day one. I bet the Brits are laughing about this....
“...saying it had to restore EU security threatened by the migration crisis “ that it had caused.
EU headquarters is Nazi- infested — this new “euro-wide, euro-supreme military force overriding all national laws and defenses” is the Nazi party wet dream finally coming true. Much more cleverly, too
Sounds like the Fourth Reich
The 1,500 guards will undoubtedly be Muslim.
I’d guess graft, corruption, smuggling, raping, robbing and occasional pillaging.
So what happens when some EU member is deemed to NOT be taking in its fair share of refugees or otherwise not playing nice? Does this supernational force then “intervene”, at the behest of the EU, *against* the member state?
Alinsky tactics-creating crises to be used as opportunities in order to reach shady goals that the people would never go for if they were openly stated. Though what the European nations thought the EU was after other than complete sovereignty over Europe, I don’t know. Same here with NAFTA and other globalising trends.
That has crossed my mind, as being an early harbinger of the trend to coalesce the world.
It seems to me that this is exactly what the rulers of at least the western European nations, have wanted all along. They fight tooth and nail to join the EU (Ireland and its “vote until you get it right” comes to mind), and drag their feet for years when the people want a mere say-vote-on staying in, such as in Britain. Both sides of the mainstream political spectrum are complicit.
Maybe they are, but they have made just as large of a stupid blunder by letting Muslims into their country.
The whole world is crazy right now.
This desire to consolidate and keep power is as old as humanity.
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