Geen stemrecht voor IJsland en Noorwegen in nieuw agentschap voor buitengrenzen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Norway and Iceland should have no say in the running of the European border agency despite being members of the EU's open border agreement.

The European Commission has proposed that the two countries, which are members of the so-called Schengen zone but not of the EU, should have no right to vote on the agency for the control of external borders, Commission sources told EUobserver.

At its weekly meeting on Wednesday, the European Commission decided on the terms under which Norway and Iceland could participate in this agency, which is expected to be up and running in January 2005.

Although Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino was in favour of granting voting rights to these two countries, other Commissioners decided against it.

Iceland and Norway will not be able to vote on decisions, but the European Commission did agree that they would be able to keep out from certain decisions if they wished to do so, Commission sources said.

This proposal will now be discussed between EU member states, where the Commission is also expected to be given a mandate to negotiate this matter with the two countries.

Agencies

The aim of this border agency is to co-ordinate land-border, air-border and maritime control centres but member states will still be responsible for their own border controls.

It will also support EU states on a European level in the training of their national border guards and on the return of third-country nationals illegally residing in the EU.

This agency will have a staff of about 30 individuals, a budget of six million euro in 2005 and ten million euro in 2006.

No decision has been taken yet on the location of this agency, where the fight is between six of the new EU member states - Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Malta.