18 Amendments of Clare DALY related to 2020/2196(INI)
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas OLAF has opened an investigation into Frontex over allegations of harassment, misconduct and migrant pushbacks;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Deplores the fact that internal border controls are continuing to be introduced by some Member States as a unilateral response to new challenges, in the absence of any proof of their effectiveness and before they have given proper consideration to the common European interest in maintaining Schengen as an area without internal border controls; reiterates its call on the Commission to exercise appropriate scrutiny over the application of the Schengen acquis, including through the use of infringement procedures, and underlines the urgent need to enhance mutual trust and cooperation among the Schengen states and appropriate governance for the Schengen area;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that the Schengen evaluation reports and the vulnerability assessments continue to point to deficiencies and vulnerabilities in the protection and management of the external border; calls on the Member States to implement the recommendations addressed to them by the Council and Frontex, aimed at remedying the deficiencies and vulnerabilities in particular those recommendations in regard to respect for fundamental rights in border management actions and activities; including compliance with the Charter of fundamental rights;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Expresses its deep concern about the repeated and documented Frontex’s involvement in pushbacks; stresses the seriousness of these illegal actions concerning Frontex’s performed by Frontex vessels and condemns any potential complicit behaviour in maritime pushback operations; calls on the Commission, as the institution resposnsible involvement in pushbacks and, to firmly demand an independent investigation regarding these reports and the way in which Frontex’s operations are monitored to ensure compliance with international legislation and the principles and values regarding the protection of those at risk at sea; considers that internal reporting mechanisms, as well as parliamentary and public scrutiny over Frontex’s activities, must be reinforced;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Deeply regrets the fact that there have been persistent and serious reports about violence and pushbackIs horrified by the reports from the Border Violence Monitoring Network about the violent pushbacks by Frontex; Deplores chain pushbacks where a person is pushed back from one to member state to the other and then pushed back to a third country; Considers this a form of coordinated serial refoulement where the European Commission, due to its failure to act on the matter, bears a responsibility; Is appalled by the 308 recorded testimonies of 3302 persons (including minors) who were violently pushed back and considers this only the tip of the iceberg of human rights abuses at the EU's external border, as well as the lack of adequate monitoring mechanisms to ensures; Deplores the restricted access by some Member States of existing national human rights institutions to border facilities and areas impeding them to exercise their mandate to monitor respect ofor fundamental rights and the rule of law at the external borders; calls for the establishment of an EU-wide mechanism where independent and competent national human rights institutions, and NGOs, EU agencies such as the FRA as well as international organisations such as UNHCR should be part of; insists on the need to ensure the independence, transparency and effectiveness of such an instrument; considers that the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) must immediately be given an enhanced operational role with regard to the monitoring of respect for fundamental rights at the external borders;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Following the repeated reports of human rights violations by Frontex, calls upon the Executive Director to immediately step down;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Deeply regrets the fact that there have been delays in the implementation of the fundamental rights provisions of the new European Border and Coast Guard Regulation15 , such as the recruitment of 40 fundamental rights monitors by 5 December 2020 as stipulated in the Regulation; calls on Frontex, on the basis of Article 265 of the TFEU, to ensure the implementation of Article 110(6) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 within two months from the date of adoption of this resolution at the latest; Regrets to note that this is a repeated request which has been ignored so far; Calls furthermore for the establishment of an independent fundamental rights complaint mechanism that would be outside of the agency; __________________ 15 Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 of 13 November 2019.
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Expresses its deep concern about the high number of deaths in the Mediterranean; calls on Member States and Frontex to comply with their duties under international law and step up their efforts in support of search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to review the SEMM; recalls the discussions on its legal basis during the negotiations on the Schengen Governance Package in 2012 and insists on being involved in the reform of the mechanism on an equal footing with the Council, either through the use of the ordinary legislative procedure, or using the same method as for the adoption of Council Regulation (EU) No 1053/2013 establishing the SEMM; considers that shortening the deadlines, evaluating respect for fundamental rights, bolstering the possibility to conduct genuinely unannounced visits and, improving transparency and developing a prioritised procedure to apply when evaluation missions detect serious deficiencies, in particular in regard to respect for fundamental rights, must be key elements of any future reform;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Considers that evaluation teams should be allowed to pay unannounced on-site visits to Member States, instead of having to give a 24-hour notice;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Considers that the Commission should provide an IT tool for the management of the Schengen evaluation documents; considers that this tool should consist of a publicly available scoreboard on its website which indicates progress of evaluation processes per Member State and subject area, which allows to identify the documents produced and which should provide for a secured and encrypted access to the classified information for the actors with access rights; considers that the Commission should facilitate access of individual Members of the European Parliament to the evaluation reports;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Considers that another visit to Croatia should take place to further assess the protection of the external border, further to the visits of 2016, 2017 and the renewed visit of 2019; calls on Croatia to continue to implement ongoing actions and remedy any deficiencies identified, especially as regards staffing levels and land border surveillance capacityprofessionalism of staff and training; insists that the forthcoming visit must also assesshave as its core subject the respect for fundamental rights and the reports about violence and pushbacks;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Considers that any scheme involving assistance for the purpose of protection of the external borders must be tied to a proposal for a fully independent monitoring mechanism;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Expresses strong concerns regarding the communication of the European Commission in 2019 that Croatia had taken the necessary measures to ensure that the conditions for the applications of all the Schengen rules and standards are met; Stresses in this regard the failure of the European Commission to take into account the compliance of Croatia with fundamental rights as enshrined in article 4 of the Schengen Borders Code; Calls on the Commission to ensure such violations are urgently remedied.
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes the progress made in the development of the new large-scale IT systems and interoperability among them; calls on the Member States, the Commission and the agencies involved to uphold the envisaged timetable for implementation and to make adhering to this timetable a political priority;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. WelcomNotes the presentation of the strategic risk analysis for European integrated border management presented by Frontex as the first step of the new policy cycle; which also needs to fully take into account fundamental rights;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Notes that the various crises of recent years and the uncoordinated, unilateral actions by the member states, including the imposition and maintenance of internal border controls past the point at which they can be considered lawful, have put Schengen at risk and the efforts to search for solutions need to be stepped up; welcomes, in this context, the Commission’s intention to adopt a strategy on the future of Schengen, and further welcomes the establishment of a Schengen Forum, which should also allow for high- level political debates on the state and future of Schengen with Parliament and the Council;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Considers that the Schengen Borders Code, in particular as regards rules on internal border controls, is no longer fit for purpose and requires an urgent and meaningful reform in order to strengthen mutual trust and solidarity, and to safeguard the integrity and full restoration of the Schengen area; stresses that the reintroduction of internal border controls should only ever be a measure of last resort, for a limited period of time, and to the extent that the controls are necessary and proportionate to the identified serious threat, while maintaining a distinction between different legal bases; considers that on each occasion that border controls are prolonged by a Member State, additional safeguards should apply and that, in all circumstances, such measures should be withdrawn as soon as the underlying grounds for them cease to exist; calls for the timely imposition of sanctions in circumstances where Member States maintain internal border controls without fulfilling the criteria aforementioned; considers that in all cases proper human rights reporting and monitoring mechanisms should be put in place;