Speech: Remarks by Commissioner Avramopoulos following the Informal Justice and Home Affairs Council in Bratislava

Dear friends,

First of all, let me take this opportunity to warmly thank the new Slovak Presidency for their excellent work in organising this first informal meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers here in Bratislava.

My special thanks go out to my friend and colleague Robert Kaliňák and I wish him all the best for the next six months.

This morning we discussed the existing and upcoming legislative proposals to better manage the refugee crisis.

As you know, in May we launched an ambitious package to start to reform the Common European Asylum System, focusing on Dublin, Eurodac and the new Asylum Agency.

Next week the Commission will present its second package to complete the full reform of the Common European Asylum System.

Our driving objective is to have a common system which is both effective and protective.

A system based on increased solidarity and responsibility sharing.

A system designed to ensure full convergence between the national asylum systems, while decreasing incentives for secondary movements and for irregular arrivals.

This reform has to strengthen mutual trust between Member States and, ultimately, lead to a well-functioning European asylum system.

We will better protect those in need and sanction those who abuse the system.

Of course, the refugee crisis is not only a European responsibility.

It is a global responsibility, and resettlement is a key element in that.

The Union needs to take on its fair share of this global responsibility.

This is why the Commission will propose next week a structured common system to pool European resettlement efforts more systematically.

We want the EU i to be able to contribute ambitiously and with a single voice at the September High-Level UN Meeting on addressing large movements of refugees and migrants in New York.

More generally, we need to work closer together with friends and partners around the world on managing migration better.

That is why we proposed the new Partnership Framework with countries outside the EU. Internal and external migration policies are closely interlinked.

And in between these two policies are our external borders.

This afternoon we discussed our ongoing efforts to secure Europe's external borders.

Yesterday the Parliament agreed on the European Border and Coast Guard.

To have finalised such an unprecedented and ambitious proposal in 6 months is historical but also symbolic: showing the formal recognition that the external border of one Member State is the external border of us all.

Europe will treat the protection of its borders as a common mission of solidarity and responsibility. The next step is of course implementation and this has to happen quickly.

We are further intensifying our preparatory work on five priority areas:

• 1) 

  vulnerability assessments,

• 2) 

  pooling of resources,

• 3) 

  return activities,

• 4) 

  the complaint mechanism,

• 5) 

  and enhanced cooperation with third countries.

When up and running, the European Border and Coast Guard will provide the missing link to strengthen Europe's external borders, so that people can continue to live and move freely within the European Union.

It will help live up to Europe's commitment to get back to the normal functioning of the Schengen area and the lifting of temporary internal border controls by the end of the Slovak Presidency.

I am also very pleased that the Slovak Presidency attaches great importance to the Smart Borders project and that it is committed to making it a reality, including our proposal for an Entry-Exit System.

After today's positive feedback from the Ministers, I hope that that we can develop in the coming months a complete Smart Borders infrastructure.

I also informed Ministers about the Commission's intention to present a proposal for an EU Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which would have similar functions to the well-known US system 'ESTA'.

So to conclude: we had a very fruitful first informal Justice and Home Affairs Council - we all know we have quite some homework ahead of us for the coming 6 months.

I have to confirm what Robert (Kaliňák) said before. The framework within we shall keep working in the future is what I spontaneously said yesterday about the 4Rs (Relocation, Resettlement, Return and Readmission), that Robert mentioned before. Above all these 4Rs, there is one more R: Responsibility, and I am sure that through this meeting this is the message we send to Europe today. We are the first ones to be committed in a responsible way to give European solutions, to inspire trust among our citizens, and off course, in practical terms a better functioning and protection of our common European borders.

Thank you.

SPEECH/16/2450