Events

Final Countdown for Schengen expansion

EuroCOP´s third enlargement conference "Policing in an enlarged EU" dealt with the challenges ahead of the Schengen enlargement.

Who is ready for Schengen? The new EU-member states the Czech Republic and Poland and the old EU-members Germany and Austria are most likely to drop their border controls in between one another next year when the Schengen area expands.

But are these countries and in particular their police forces ready for this step?

The third round of EuroCOP´s enlargement conference series entitled “Policing in an enlarged EU”, taking place in Prague in May, dealt with exactly this matter.

Representatives from EuroCOP, German police, the Czech police union and the Czech and Austrian government met to discuss what challenges the new outer border of the EU might cause for the new and the old member states in the Schengen enlargement process.

EuroCOP 3^rd Enlargement Conference in Prague

Police Commissioner in Oberfranken, Gerhard Bauer, opened up the conference stressing the importance of working together for a mutual goal.

He said however that “cross border cooperation in a Europe growing together only makes sense if the process is structured”.

A few of the stipulations he mentioned which would be necessary to make this work were improving language skills, knowledge of different legal systems, trans border education and forming personal contacts.

Gerhard Bauer, Police Commisioner Oberfranken, Germany and
Miloslav Koudelny, Czech Deputy Interior Minister

Cooperation in between the Czech Republic and Germany has already started in some of these areas such as education support and working groups dealing with border specific challenges.

However, the president of the Czech Police Union, Milan Stepanek, argued that the Czech police is in need of a general equipment update, in order to be able to cooperate on a EU level.

“To be able to become a valid and functioning part of police cooperation in Europe , there are many areas which are in need of improvement,” Stepanek said.

Milan Stepanek, President of NOSP, Czech Republic

The President of EuroCOP, Heinz Kiefer, agreed that the fulfilment of a general standard level for the police is essential when it comes to fulfilling the Schengen requirements.

“The level of the border police is not the only factor necessary in order to succeed in the Schengen enlargement process. Well equipped, adequately ensured and motivated colleagues are equally important,” he said and added:

“In many of the new member states the general conditions of police employees have only marginally improved following the EU entry”.


Heinz Kiefer, European Confederation of Police, President	Vladislav Husak, Czech Police President

Both the Czech Police President Vladislav Husak and the Czech Deputy Interior Minister Miloslav Koudelny stated that the Czech Republic will fulfil all the necessary requirements by October 2007, which is the official Schengen entry date agreed upon in 2004, when the Czech Republic joined the EU.

“When it comes to the Czech Republic …., we can say that we will be able to fulfil our duties on time,” the Czech deputy interior minister said.

To be able to determine whether the new EU member states are ready for Schengen, Major-General Peter Scherer, representing the Austrian EU Presidency, said an extensive evaluation will be necessary.

EuroCOP president Heinz Kiefer stressed the importance of transparency throughout the whole process.
“One of our demands is a transparent decision process concerning the expansion of the Schengen area. The EU-member states should be open and honest when communicating with its citizens on this topic”.

Major General Peter Scherer, Austrian EU Presiency

None of the ten member states which joined the EU in 2004; the Baltic States, Poland , Slovakia , The Czech Republic, Slovenia , Hungary , Malta and Cyprus are currently participating in the borderless Schengen area.

The reason for this is because the EU wanted to protect itself against an invasion of cheap labour entering the border from the new member states. The second reason was the assumption that the safety forces of the new member states were not ready to implement the Schengen requirements such as fulfilling high standards of criminality control and independently handling the outer border of the EU.

The next and the last conference in the EuroCOP series of the Schengen area enlargement will take place in Helsinki on September 25^th, 2006. The main topic to be discussed there will be the conformity of police education in the EU and the thereto connected development of common professional standards.