Living Europe Safely
Joint statement by the interior ministers of Germany, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble; Portugal, Antonio Costa; and Slovenia, Dragutin Mate on the programme for the trio presidency
For the first time in its history, the European Union will have a trio presidency, starting with Germany on 1 January 2007 and continuing with Portugal and Slovenia. As part of this effort, we have agreed on a joint programme for the next 18 months. The trio presidency represents both a special opportunity and obligation: It offers the opportunity to set a balanced policy in the interest of all the Member States, because the team brings together different-sized states from different regions of Europe. In this way, it also enables greater policy continuity in an enlarged European Union.
Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1 January. Like the previous enlargement, this one will make the EU more secure, because both new members will implement the security standards which apply to the rest of the EU. This also entails a consistently higher level of protection along our external borders and close cooperation among the Member States. One important aim of the first trio presidency is to strengthen the European border protection agency FRONTEX, thereby improving protection of the external borders.
Opening the borders to the new members also depends on their rapid inclusion in the Schengen Information System, which we will work hard to achieve. Due not least to Portugal’s brave initiative, actively supported by Slovenia, on behalf of an overhauled Schengen Information System (“SISone4All”) the European home affairs ministers were able to agree at the Council in early December that this should be technically possible by late 2007. If all other conditions are fulfilled, this will allow checks at the European Union’s internal borders to be discontinued from 31 December 2007. – A truly secure door is one that can be left open. The Schengen Information System allows the police direct access to data collected at the external borders. In this way, information about wanted persons, entry bans, stolen vehicles and weapons can be shared quickly and securely.
The overall security of our citizens is one focus of the trio presidency. From the citizens’ perspective, this may be the European Union’s greatest challenge and responsibility. Globalization, to which we must respond, affects not only our jobs; it also affects our security. In a world made smaller by the Internet, e-mail and modern airports, conflicts and crime also hit closer to home, resulting in new threats which can be overcome only by working together.
Germany, Portugal and Slovenia want to press forward in the fight against terrorism and cross-border crime in the European Union. To do so, we must improve police cooperation.
Our aim is, first, to strengthen existing institutions such as the European police office Europol. For example, with a Europol joint operation against child pornography, it was possible to search homes and arrest several persons simultaneously in 12 EU countries. We would like to make Europol responsible for fighting all forms of serious, cross-border crime. Europol should also provide effective assistance in rolling up terrorist networks before they have a chance to act, for example by monitoring terrorist activity on the Internet more closely.
Second, we want to extend proven police cooperation between Member States to the EU as a whole. This includes, for example, mutual access to fingerprint and DNA data in order to identify terrorists, hooligans and violent offenders more easily.
The 2006 World Cup in Germany was a good example of how much we in Europe can profit from cooperation among our police forces. More than 500 police officers from 12 EU Member States helped us celebrate a month-long, violence-free festival of football. Guest officers, like German officers, were able to check identification and take persons into temporary custody. Their experience with fans from their own countries was also important. This is why during our team presidency we would like to introduce the possibility Europe-wide for guest officers serving at major events to be granted executive powers.
A second major focus will be a global, balanced approach to migration. Fighting illegal migration and human trafficking is especially important in this context. We have all seen the pictures of Africans in flimsy vessels landing on the Canary Islands, Malta, Cyprus or Lampedusa in order to reach the European Union.
Through dialogue with migrants’ countries of origin, we have to find a way to improve their local living conditions, to manage legal immigration while taking into account the different labour market conditions in the Member States, and to take rigorous action at the European level against illegal immigration. Human smugglers must not be allowed to profit from the misery of others.
The ministerial conference on migration issues planned in Portugal for November 2007 between the EU Member States and the Mediterranean states (EUROMED) will be a valuable tool for intensifying the dialogue with third countries.
It is also important for us to look beyond just the issue of illegal migration to seek a comprehensive European policy on neighbouring and other countries of origin. Such policy must include negotiations on legal entry quotas, returns and efforts by the countries of origin themselves to reduce the numbers of their nationals who want to leave, as well as development aid, trade and diplomatic pressure.
And it is of course equally important that we address the issue of coexistence with immigrants living within the European Union. For immigration to be recognized as an opportunity, it needs some direction: It must not lead to segregation, but to integration. This is why the third focus of our team presidency is integration and intercultural dialogue.
In this context, it is especially important for us to communicate better with the more than 15 million Muslims living in Europe. Here, the Member States can learn from each other. In France, for example, a council has been established to serve as the official representative of French Islam to the government. Germany does not have this kind of central representative, but has recently initiated a dialogue with various representatives of Islam in the German Conference on Islam. In May 2007, we will conduct a European conference on integration to share best practices with regard to integration issues and intercultural dialogue.
On questions of ensuring security, managing immigration and integrating migrants, Europe can provide answers that would not be possible at the national level. Over the next 18 months, in the field of domestic policy Germany, Portugal and Slovenia will take advantage of the opportunity offered by the first trio presidency in particular to make Europe more secure, to protect the common external borders, manage immigration and promote integration.
