Germans whistle, Europe dance. We have been saying that the whole time: that Berlin will do its best to take control of Greece’s borders. And now it is confirmed, even though not officially. Germany and France want extended powers for Frontex in terms of more autonomy. German and French interior ministers wrote a letter to EU Commission saying that urgent reforms are needed to protect EU’s etxernal borders. For this reason, the Frontex needs more powers and more autonomy. “And less souverign Greece,” I would add. Then, the two core-Europe ministers target “Greece” as the only Schengen-country facing an unprecedented inflow of refugees. And what the two want is to curtail the sovereignty of EU Member States under the pretext of the protection of external borders in exceptional cases.
“Under the Code as it currently stands, the Commission can only recommend that a member state accept help in controlling its borders but not force it to do so.”
According to German conservative “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” on Sunday:
“The interior ministers of Germany and France wrote to the EU Commission saying there needed to be urgent reforms enacted to protect the EU’s external borders and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) if the Schengen visa-free travel zone was to continue to exist.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve urged the Commission to extend the Schengen Borders Code so that Frontex could itself decide to help control an external border if it deemed there to be a sufficient risk that it was not being properly managed.
The paper reported that they also suggested allowing Frontex to take the initiative in deploying emergency border protection teams in exceptional circumstances.
“Under the Code as it currently stands, the Commission can only recommend that a member state accept help in controlling its borders but not force it to do so.”
The recommendation from de Maiziere and Cazeneuve comes as EU member Greece is struggling to cope with a massive influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Turkey.
De Maiziere already said on Friday that he was expecting an EU Commission proposal due on December 15 to suggest giving Frontex the responsibility for controlling external EU frontiers if a member state failed to do so.
The Frontex role at present is largely to coordinate national border agencies. (full article in English via Reuters/Deutsche Welle)
The FAZ article has been neither dismissed nor confirmed. ⇒ Therefore it must be true.
Unfortunately, history has tough us, that when Germany is determined on something, Germany does all it can to pass it through. Sad that France plays Germany’s game, sad that the Frontex has the leading role on this.
PS Note: Neither Germany nor France are even close to EU’s external borders. If they think, grabbing Greece’s sovereignty in order to secure their own political power… what can I say? Long Live EU and its fake “democracy”…
Hopefully Italy and Spain will remember that the same tricks were plaid on them.
It will be interesting if the Greek government will find any ways to let the European public learn that it was asking for European support since May and that the small numbers of fresh Frontex-merceneries that reached Greece might indicate that there is interest in letting escalate the situation; also that Greece seemed to afford a billion Euros to rescue and host refugees while only some ten million came from Brussels looks weird.
Frankly, I don’t understand this issue at all. If Austria had an external border towards the East and if an avalanche of refugees were headed from the East towards Austria, I think the first thing the Austrian government would do would be to cry for help in Brussels. In fact, Austrians would probably find ways to delegate the whole dirty work of controlling its external border during an avalanche (and the cost of it!) to the EU.
Why in the world would Greeks not want to the same? I mean, Greece has enough other problems which it cannot delegate to the EU. This one it could.
are we talking here about an Austria without any border problems with its neighbors or are we talking about German-French borders a couple of decades ago?
Intentionally or not, you did not understand what I meant.
I replied to you. and furthermore: why should we believe Eu claiming ‘Greece doesn’t want the help + Frontex” and not Athens saying ” we did ask for help”. I’m sure we all remember GR shouting “it’s a European problem” but conservative EUropean (CDU/CSU, East EU countries) shouting back “It’s Greece’s problem.”
Asa point of fact close to 450 FRONTEX personnel are already operating in Greece. So the storyline that Greece doesn’t cooperate with the EU or allow FRONTEX into Greece is another convenient fiction peddled by our ” partners.”
Because actually controlling the sea borders (as in preventing refugees from coming in) is not really feasible. More frontex will help in making sure the refugees are officially tied to Greece.
So when Germany fails to actually create a true common policy among the whole of EU it can then dump the refugees in Greece according to the Dublin Regulation.
To cause brilliant effect Tsipras should “dump” them on Mykonos, concentration-camps in the Aegean is pretty democratic and European
To control the Eastern Aegean the EU only needs some 2 million jet-ski —looks like a huge job-program.
Anyway I’m pretty-sure that some funny dudes will some day put a joke on these 2 million Frontex and commit a very miraculous bank-robbery with a speed-boat and just disappear between two waves; this is Greece, not Lake Constance.
No country will cede sovereignty over its borders to another, or to the EU. You are talking nonsense, Klaus: the political impact of losing control over territory is directly analogous to losing control over your economy. There is no way that Austria would do either. Moreover, we have seen very clearly that Austria gets angry with criticisms of its policies on asylum and irregular migrants, passed by the ECtHR. It is NOT a matter of delegating: it is a matter of losing control of your country.
If Germany and France want to in effect control external borders, then Greece must also have the right to force those countries to control internal borders so that not all refugees/migrants get stuck in the most generous and least appreciated EU country affected by the situation – Greece. Therefore, Germany and France in exchange for adding control of Greek borders must agree to allow ALL incoming non EU persons to enter and stay in their countries until such time as both countries find the backbone to stand up to US and say NO MORE WAR ON AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ, SUDAN,LIBYA,ERITREA,SYRIA,etc…
Another classic example that proves that in today’s EU some countries are more equal than other.
Greece was of course never asked for its opinion when France, Britain, Germany et al. decided that it was good policy to bomb various countries in the Middle East and North Africa thereby creating refugee/migrant flows that Greece now has to deal with. And if Greece has to deal with them, it’s because France, Britain, and Germany (not to mention the other “democratic” poodles in Europe) don’t want to actually have to deal with the refugees/migrants in their country – after all they’re dirty, smelly and potentially dangerous. Instead they want to be able to pick and choose who comes to Germany and France (doctors, engineers, architects, etc.) and let Greece deal with the undesirables in Greece (after all, in their eyes, we’re just as dirty, smelly and dangerous).
And of course in our union of equals, whoever doesn’t agree with their diktats gets threatened until they do agree. Isn’t solidarity wonderful?
It should be clear what the EU is all about: power. Only power. Biggest and more powerful countries will try to control smaller and less powerful counterparts. It will not end in Greece and won’t be about controlling borders. It’s a matter of time and they will control everthing! At some point they could say that the police of a country is not doing well enough to fight crime, and this would have spillover effects on other EU countries. So, they will claim that “help” from the EU is needed … When will Europeans wake up?
As history tells us, when boots are marching through the streets of their cities, and not before… Everything is being manipulated and put in place to “justify” this in the very near future. Not long more…