French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested the European Union form a “Schengen Council” in order that member states are better able to coordinate and react to threats to the bloc’s external borders.
French President Macron, who currently heads the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first half of 2022, stated this week that he wished to see the formation of a new council to “better anticipate crises and react more quickly, as Europeans, to evaluate our frailties and better protect our external borders.”
“In order to deal with crises at our external borders, I propose the implementation of a European platform. It will allow us to join all forces of our Union, all our tools, in a supportive, effective and fast way,” President Macron stated, the Italian news agency ANSA reports.
“Our external borders are shared, our space of common free circulation must be preserved. It is therefore as Europeans that we must build a response to the challenges of asylum and migration, with effectiveness and solidarity,” Macron added.
European Union member states located on the external border of the bloc are largely left to themselves to defend the EU border from illegal immigrants, drug smugglers, and other external threats. This has been an issue for countries like Italy and Greece who have demanded more EU help in dealing with border issues in the past.
Last year, the interior ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain formed the “MED 5” group and urged other EU member states to help share the burden caused by mass migration as well as call on the EU to develop better cooperation with countries where migrants originate and create a centralised mechanism to facilitate the repatriation of illegals.
The European Union has made some moves in recent years to help secure its external borders using the bloc’s border agency Frontex, which is set to vastly expand to at least 10,000 officers by 2027, from just 1,500 in 2019.