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Thursday, 25.04.2024, 09:28
Towards an effective and sustainable European Security Union
Security has been a constant theme in
the EU institutions since the beginning of the Juncker Commission's mandate: from
President Juncker's Political
Guidelines of July 2014, to the latest State
of the Union address on September 2016.
The European Commission adopted
the European
Agenda on Security on 28 April 2015, setting out the main
actions to ensure an effective EU response to terrorism and security threats in
the European Union over the period 2015-2020.
Since the adoption of the Agenda,
significant progress has been made in its implementation. Key areas of
attention have been reinforced by Action Plans adopted in December 2015
on firearms
and explosives, in February 2016 on strengthening
the fight against terrorist financing, the Communication of 6 April
2016 on Stronger
and Smarter Information Systems for Borders and Security, and the
Communication of 20 April 2016 on Delivering
on the European Agenda on Security to fight against terrorism and pave the way
towards an effective and genuine Security Union.
Most recently, the launch on 6
October of a European Border and Coast Guard, as announced by President Juncker
in his State
of the Union Speech on 9 September 2015 and only 9 months after
the Commission's proposal in December, shows a clear commitment to implement
the measures under the European
Agenda on Migration to reinforce the management and security of
the EU's external borders.
The creation by President Juncker
of a specific Commissioner portfolio for the Security Union in August 2016 shows the importance the Commission
has attached to stepping up its response to the terrorist threat. The
Commissioner will be assisted by a cross cutting Task Force drawing on the
expertise of the whole Commission to drive work forward and to ensure
implementation. The first Task Force meeting was held on 22 September 2016.
Commissioner for Migration, Home
Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos said: "The fragmentation of
our security framework makes us all vulnerable. The dots have to be connected
within and between Member States, but also between Member States and EU
Agencies, and between the different security and border management systems. The
internal security of one Member State is the internal security of all. In this
rapidly changing security environment, delivering on a genuine and effective
Security Union means delivering on all elements."
Commissioner for the Security
Union, Julian King said: "Terrorists don't target one member state or
another. They target our way of life, our openness, our future. Our response
needs to be comprehensive and sustainable, building on trust and the effective
cooperation between EU institutions and the member states."
The report (Brussels, 12 October
2016) underlines the need to implement existing EU legislation and to
accelerate the work on security related proposals presented by the Commission.
The Commission's work will focus on strengthening the fight against terrorism
by depriving terrorists of the means to commit attacks and enhancing our
defence and resilience against these threats. The main priority areas are:
1. Improving the legal
framework and preventing and fighting radicalisation:
- To this end, an agreement should
be reached before the end of the year on the Commission's proposal for a Directive
on combating terrorism. The Directive is vital to ensure that the EU's
legal framework can tackle terrorist threats effectively, in particular threats
posed by returning foreign terrorist fighters.
- An agreement should also be
reached before the end of the year on the revision of the Firearms
Directive. The Commission will continue to urge the co-legislators to
maintain the level of ambition, particularly the objective to ban the most
dangerous semi-automatic firearms.
- The Commission has taken action
to reduce access to precursors that can be used to make homemade explosives and
ensure full implementation of the Regulation on the marketing and use
of explosive precursors. To this effect, additional precursor
substances of concern to be included in the Regulation have been identified and
will be added to the list of substances subject to enhanced control by the
Commission in November.
2. Improving information
exchange, strengthening information systems and enhancing security at the
external borders:
- Member States should urgently
take the necessary steps to build their Passenger Information Units (PIUs) to
ensure that they are able to implement fully the EU PNR Directive
at the latest by May 2018, the deadline for full implementation of the
Directive. To support Member States to accelerate their work, the Commission
will make available an additional €70 million in EU funding and will present an
implementation plan by November 2016 including milestones that
Member States will need to meet in order to have their PIUs up and running.
- To strengthen the fight against
cross border crime, the Commission has also in September initiated infringement
procedures against Member States who had not yet implemented the Prüm
Decisions.
- The Commission will also take the
necessary steps to enable the European Counter
Terrorism Centre at
Europol to provide 24/7 support to Member States.
- The work of the important High
Level Expert Group set up by the Commission in April 2016 to address
legal, technical and operational aspects of different options to achieve
greater interoperability of information systems needs to be accelerated. The
Commission will present interim findings to the Council and to the European
Parliament in the course of the next months.
Work is also ongoing as regards the
Commission's legislative proposal for an EU Travel and Information
Authorisation System (ETIAS) to provide prior checks for visa-exempt
third-country nationals travelling to the Schengen area, which will be
presented by November.
In addition, swift negotiations and
adoption of the Commission proposal for systematic checks of
EU citizens crossing the external borders by the end of 2016 and the
establishment of an EU Entry-Exist System (EES) are necessary
to enhance security at the external EU borders.
The present report is the first of
a series of monthly reports on the progress made towards an operational and
effective Security Union, as requested by President Juncker in his mission
letter addressed to Commissioner Julian King. The monthly reports will
highlight action taken by the EU institutions and EU Agencies in the area of
security and will identify where more efforts are needed. The next progress
report is foreseen for November 2016.
More information on the
following links:
- Communication
on progress towards an effective and genuine Security Union;
- European
Agenda on Security;
- Factsheet:
Security Union;
- Questions
and Answers: Paving the way towards a genuine and effective Security
Union;
- Mission
Letter to Sir Julian King, Commissioner for the Security Union
Source:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-3367_en.htm