Schäuble: Germany will get tough on immigration

Germany will strengthen the Union’s border agency, Frontex, during its presidency of the EU and put pressure on countries to take back illegal immigrants, according to the country’s Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

In an interview with European Voice, Schäuble said that Germany would also introduce into EU law a treaty on police exchange of information drafted and agreed outside the Union through so-called enhanced co-operation, between a core group of EU states.

Economic help and possibly labour quotas would form part of the strategy to gain the co-operation of countries from which illegal immigrants come and through which they pass to get to Europe, said Schäuble. "But we have to also put pressure [on them], because we need co-operation [from] these countries and we can’t accept the countries of origin won’t take back illegal migrants."

This notion is spelled out more explicitly in a recent paper drafted jointly by Schäuble and French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, which says the EU should consider "serious sanctions against those third countries that are not prepared to co-operate on return issues". Frontex should be given more funding and competences, according to the paper, and while Schaüble said he was pleased that the agency’s budget next year will rise to €33 million, he said "maybe in the coming years we can go further - but we have to go step by step".

In a signal that some EU states are somewhat displeased about the focus on immigration into Europe’s southern borders, Schäuble said immigration from eastern countries would also be addressed during the presidency, which starts in January.

Police co-operation will also be high on the agenda for the German presidency and bringing the Treaty of Prüm - which allows police exchange of DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registration numbers - into the EU’s legal framework will be among the priorities. Schaüble denied this would undermine the EU’s legislative process, given that the treaty was negotiated and originally signed by seven member states outside the Union’s institutions. "The Prüm treaty never was an exclusive operation, there was always an invitation for all to join it," he said. Germany had the backing of the European Commission and four other EU states, including an agreement from the UK that it would not oppose it, Schaüble added.

He said the treaty would be an extension of good co-operation among police forces already taking place, for example, between Germany and Poland during last summer’s football World Cup. An agreement might be set up in the future with the Netherlands to allow German police cars to patrol the area around Dutch coffee shops where marijuana is legally smoked, to warn Germans who drive back home under the influence or try to import quantities of the drug, the minister added.

He said it was important that the new member states were brought into the Schengen area, provided they fulfilled their obligations on preparing their border controls. He had offered support to Poland, one of the states showing problems with such controls. "We must not have any difference between new and old member states. We must not be arrogant. Of course, we are concerned about enlarging Schengen. The eastern border in Germany is actually a Schengen outer border and it will change, but we are ready," Schaüble said.

He acknowledged negotiations for a new treaty to allow the transfer of European airline passenger data to the US would be "difficult" but said such co-operation was necessary. "All the people that fear for their data protection, if they were to sit on an aeroplane which was destroyed by terrorists they would change their mind."

Schäuble also said that during its presidency, Germany would concentrate on trying to "give some new dynamic to the process of ratification of the constitutional treaty" and therefore would not be supporting attempts by the Commission to use the so-called passerelle clause, which would see member states lose their vetoes on certain justice and home affairs issues. "Using the passerelle needs a ratification procedure in all member states…therefore we say let’s concentrate on bringing forward the constitutional treaty," he said.

• See also Special Report

Germany will strengthen the Union’s border agency, Frontex, during its presidency of the EU and put pressure on countries to take back illegal immigrants, according to the country’s Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.