Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-19-Speech-1-101"
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"en.20091019.17.1-101"2
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"Madam President, it is with great regret that I am addressing the House as a Member from a country that has not yet opted into the Schengen Agreement. It is something I would support entry into. It is my hope that the Schengen Evaluation Working Group will finally demonstrate to the Irish State, and indeed our neighbours across the way in Britain, the undoubted benefits of Schengen.
Freedom of movement is a basic right and a pillar of EU citizenship for which we are all striving. Being able to reduce borders and allow the freedom and benefits of travel to EU citizens has been quite remarkable, especially considering European history. The fact that this was done while increasing the ability of our authorities to tackle crime associated with crossing borders has been a major historic achievement and one of the great successes of the EU to date. It was the Schengen Agreement that prompted Ireland to build a full data system of criminal information that will hopefully be linked up to a European system in the coming years. Schengen has worked extremely well and it is visible for all to see.
It is because of this remarkable achievement that it is regrettable that my own country is only taking part in Schengen on a piecemeal basis. While there has been full cooperation between the Irish security authorities and our European counterparts in the whole area of police matters, the full benefits of the EU are not being shared by Irish citizens. The abolition of border controls requires mutual trust between all Member States involved. Unfortunately, the Irish Government’s position so far is that it cannot trust its European neighbours in full and it is operating on a minor level when it comes to free movement of people in Europe. I very much regret this. What we really need is an EU-wide visa system to which Schengen and today’s debate will hopefully contribute.
Regarding the proposal in front of us, I would ask the Commission to withdraw it. I believe that it gives too much power to the Commission. In real terms, it tries to disregard the European Parliament. It should come back to us with proposals that respect the codecision procedure and, besides this debate, post-Lisbon, there will be a requirement to bring in new proposals anyway."@en1
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