Frontier financing put on the line

Date: 12/02/1998

By Simon Coss

CENTRAL and eastern European countries bidding for EU membership should demonstrate their commitment to improving border controls by meeting at least part of the cost from their own coffers, warn European Commission experts.

Officials argue that if applicants really want to convince the Union that they are serious about their efforts to tighten controls, they should find the means to pay for improvements themselves rather than asking for EU assistance.

“Whenever the question comes around to modern equipment, they simply say 'we can't pay'. They should have the attitude that they commit their own money first,” said one Commission official. “If they are not ready to pay, are they really ready to join? I am a bit fed up with this begging attitude. These are not the poorest states in the world.”

How the applicants will take this somewhat frank advice remains to be seen.

When Hungarian Interior Minister Gàbor Kunkcze spoke last week to members of the European Parliament about the question of paying for improved border controls, his message was very clear.

“This amount is so large that we will not be able to provide all of it out of our budgetary resources, so we do expect Union support,” he said. “It is in the Union's interest to have a good border guard in Hungary.”

Hungary would be responsible for 1,770 kilometres of the Union's external frontiers after joining the EU.

If all of the hopeful candidates become members, they will be in charge of guarding almost all of the Union's eastern border. Existing member state Finland will continue to police the northern border with Russia, while Greece and Turkey will maintain their traditional face-off in the South.

EU applicants face an additional challenge on the frontiers issue as they will also have to meet the tough provisions of the Schengen free movement agreement when they join the Union.

The new Amsterdam Treaty, which will almost certainly be in force by the time the first of the applicants joins, incorporates the non-Union Schengen pact into the body of EU law and will apply to all new members.

The Commission says aspiring candidates also need to build up a truly independent judiciary. Many countries still rely on a judicial system left over from the time when they were Soviet satellite states. EU experts argue that meeting this second challenge could take longer than bringing border controls up to the required standard.

“You need long-term training, including university education, to ensure these people are fully prepared. This could take four to five years in some countries,” said one official.

Experts in the Commission department responsible for relations with the ten applicant states (DGIa) are currently carrying out a detailed study into how the hopefuls match up to the Union's rules on justice and home affairs, the area of EU law which covers sensitive issues such as immigration, terrorism, drug smuggling and cooperation between the Union's 15 different national legal systems.