Council adopts regulation establishing the EUROSUR system

Source: Council of the European Union (Council) i, published on Tuesday, October 22 2013.

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 22 October 2013 (OR. en) PRESSE 426

Council adopts regulation establishing the EUROSUR system

The Council adopted the regulation establishing the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) (PE-CONS 56/13) today without discussion

The aim of the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) is to reinforce control of the Schengen external borders. In particular, EUROSUR will establish a mechanism for member states' authorities carrying out border surveillance activities to share operational information and to cooperate with each other and with the FRONTEX Agency in order to reduce the number of irregular migrants entering the EU undetected, and to increase internal security by preventing cross-border crime, such as trafficking in human beings and the smuggling of drugs

EUROSUR will become one of the key tools which the EU has at its disposal to prevent, for example, tragedies at sea such as the recent ones near the island of Lampedusa (Italy). It is expected that EUROSUR will contribute to improving the operational and technical ability of the Agency and the member states to detect small vessels. In addition, the regulation provides for the timely exchange of information between border surveillance and search and rescue authorities as well as for the exchange of information and cooperation with neighbouring third countries

According to the regulation, member states should establish national coordination centres to improve cooperation and information exchange between them and with the Agency for the purposes of border surveillance

The regulation will apply to the surveillance of external land and sea borders of the member states. It will also apply to the surveillance of air borders as well as to checks at border crossing points if the member states voluntarily provide such information to EUROSUR

The EUROSUR regulation will apply to the member states located at the Southern and Eastern external borders1 from 2 December 2013 and to the remaining member states from 1 December 2014

The EUROSUR system has been progressively developed since 2008. EUROSUR will improve daily cooperation between national authorities by establishing an information sharing and cooperation mechanism, which will enable member states' authorities to carry out coordinated border surveillance activities and work with FRONTEX at the tactical, operational and strategic levels. The conclusions of the European Council held on 23-24 June 2011 called for EUROSUR to be further developed in order to become operational by 2013

Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom are not taking part in the adoption of this regulation

1 Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia,

Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Spain

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