A proposal to give the EU executive the power to send forces unbidden into member states to defend the common European frontier could face resistance from some nations when it is published this week.
The European Commission wants to be able to deploy personnel from a new European border and coast guard agency without, as currently required, the consent of the state concerned, EU officials said in early December, reflecting frustration with Greek reluctance to seek help with migrants.
EU officials call the plan a largely theoretical “nuclear option” and stress that any infringement of national sovereignty would be balanced by the power of a majority of member states to block commission intervention — similar to checks agreed during the euro debt crisis.
The commission is scheduled to set out the plan today to reinforce its Frontex agency with up to six times more staff, EU officials said, following a commitment to an EU border guard in September by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
“We think the current situation justifies a certain ambition,” the commission’s chief spokesman said on Friday, expressing confidence about backing from member states.
Failure to strengthen the EU’s external borders, senior officials argue, would see more states reimpose frontier controls inside the bloc, wrecking its cherished Schengen free-movement zone and foster the rise of anti-EU nationalists like the French National Front.
However, while big powers France and Germany support such EU power, other EU leaders might voice concerns at a summit on Thursday. Italy has pushed for a “Europeanization” of external frontiers to relieve the costs on itself and Greece of policing the Mediterranean.
However, the plan might go too far for many leaders.
“This idea will face opposition from most member states,” an EU diplomat said. “We believe such a solution would interfere too deeply in member states’ internal competencies.”
“The commission is testing our limits,” said another.
He compared it to the commission’s push to oblige states to take in mandatory quotas of asylum seekers, which set furious east Europeans against German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Poland, a staunch opponent of mandatory refugee quotas, was quick to come out against the EU border force proposal.
“This means creating an institution, which would decide arbitrarily on its actions without the [concerned] member state’s participation,” Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski said on Sunday.
“It is one of the decisions we will protest against,” Waszczykowski said.
Germany and France, alarmed at the threat to the Schengen open-borders system from up to a million undocumented migrants arriving by sea and trekking north from Greece and Italy this year, have called for central control over the zone’s external frontiers and as a last resort, such as now in Greece, emergency powers to send in European forces uninvited.
However, even supporters of the plan among diplomats in Brussels acknowledge it could face resistance.
Governments are reserving judgment on a proposal they have yet to see, but diplomats said many were likely at least to demand stronger safeguards against being forced to act by the EU executive.
Existing powers that effectively can suspend a country from the Schengen agreements if it fails to protect the external EU border are mandatory enough, some diplomats argue.
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