Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-13-Speech-2-031-000"
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"en.20110913.4.2-031-000"2
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"Madam President, I, too, should like to start by congratulating the rapporteur on the results that he has managed – with no little difficulty – to achieve on a particularly sensitive and thorny issue in the negotiations with the Member States.
Clearly, it is important to mention a number of positive points that can be described as definite progress, even though I admit that my group and I would have appreciated the opportunity to have gone a little further in this reform. We have managed to ensure, then, that the agency will take more care to respect fundamental rights when carrying out its missions. This seems obvious, but it still needed to be established in clear terms. A specialist officer will therefore have access to all information relating to fundamental rights and will perform his or her tasks independently. The agency will have to assist the Member States in situations involving humanitarian emergencies and rescue at sea – and we have seen how important this is in recent months. Operations will be suspended in the event of a fundamental rights violation. Agreements made by Frontex with third countries will have to meet European fundamental rights standards. The principle of non-refoulement, or non-return of migrants, will be upheld in all cases. All of this is along the right lines.
The new regulation is also intended to make Frontex more efficient. To this end, the Member States will have to make a firm commitment to equip the agency with personnel and resources.
The third acknowledged step forward concerns the increased democratic scrutiny of Frontex. The European Parliament will have a very direct involvement in this, even though future amendments to this regulation will, I hope, strengthen MEPs’ right of scrutiny. Three topics, three types of progress that sound obvious but that were, nonetheless, very difficult to obtain.
Two final ideas before I finish. Frontex is, and must continue to be, seen for what it is, namely, a tool to help the EU’s external border surveillance strategy. Frontex is neither a perfect alibi nor a tool for the Member States to use in support of their own migration policies. This is an issue that we will have to work on and which I believe will continue to raise questions with regard to respective responsibilities.
Furthermore, while we are talking about Schengen, we should all remember that European migration policy has many other challenges to address apart from that of Frontex, in the areas, for example, of integration and resettlement, and of access to fair and equitable protection. We hope that the EU as a whole will demonstrate the same political will on these issues, too. In this way, we will be able, I believe, to talk about progress in relation to a Europe of asylum and migration."@en1
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