Prime Minister Vanhanen rejects European Union border guard force
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Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) rejected plans to set up a multinational system for patrolling the EU’s external borders, which member states of the European Union made on Friday. The issue has been a sensitive one for Finland, which has long insisted that responsibility for guarding the border must remain in national hands.
EU leaders attending the summit, which concluded in Brussels on Friday, nevertheless declared that the Union should look into the possibilities of establishing a European border guard system.
However, elsewhere it is noted that monitoring the external borders of the EU belongs to the "jurisdiction of national border officials".
"The aim of this is to make sure that there is a reliable border guard system at all external borders of the EU. From the point of view of Finland, we can only win", Prime Minister Vanhanen said in his comments on the decision.
According to Vanhanen, the French at least have wondered how border forces speaking different languages could operate in practice. Vanhanen has dismissed the whole project.
"Mixed systems would not bring any additional value", he says.
Planning the European border guard system is part of a broader programme aimed at developing cooperation in legal and domestic affairs. Next year a new border guard authority is to be launched in the EU, and Finland has put forward its own candidate to head the office.
The EU leaders also decided that member states would give up their right to veto decisions on matters of asylum, immigration, and border controls. The right to veto is to be retained only in questions of legal immigration.
The aim of the move is to bring more efficiency into EU decision-making. Making decisions has been made more difficult by the fact that member states have always brought tricky national issues to the EU negotiating table.
The move means that Finland would not be able to prevent the passage of an awkward decision in asylum, immigration, or border guard issues.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 8.11.2004 - TODAY |
 Prime Minister Vanhanen rejects European Union border guard force |
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