§ Mr. RosindellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the first drafts of the European Commission Communication on European Border Management will be released. [57919]
§ Beverley HughesThe communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament towards integrated management of the external borders of the member states of the European Union was deposited for parliamentary scrutiny on 17 May 2002. The communication proposes the following action in the short and medium term:
- A common corpus of legislation
- A common and operational co-ordination mechanism
- Common integrated risk analysis
- Inter-operational personnel and analysis
- Burden-sharing between the member states and the union.
The Government are supportive of closer co-operation between national border authorities of the European Union, which we believe is one of the ways to tackle the criminal networks responsible for human trafficking and illegal immigration. We are also keen to discuss practical ways of strengthening the European Union's external borders, in line with our frontiers protocol. We welcome the fact that the commission is responding to calls from member states for action in this area.
177WThe Government will provide Parliament with detailed views on this document in its explanatory memorandum. which was submitted on the 29 May.