A couple of days ago on July 1st Poland started the period of the Presidency of European Union, lasting for 6 months. Poland would like to pay a special attention to the most essential problems facing European Union and find solutions for further development.
Among the most essential achievements in the integration process of European Union is quoted Schengen Agreement started in 1985. The basic target of this agreement was abolishment of frontier control in all the European Union member countries. Poland entered in so called Schengen area in 2007. The target of this agreement seems to be carried out with a real success, but the process seems to be slowed recently and even going in the opposite direction.
When Poland started the Presidency, Denmark was starting the control on its frontiers together with Norway. Dutch nationalistic parties try to force their government to do the same in Holland. Moreover it turned out to be impossible to fix the date of entrance of Bulgaria and Romania during the Presidency of Hungary.
The issues of European mobility will be addressed during the meeting of ministers of justice and ministers of internal affairs of European Union member states to be held in Sopot in Poland on 18th and 19th July.
Poland insists very much to unify the immigration law in all the EU member states. It is actually very easy to receive asylum in certain member states and very difficult in the others, it really complicates the whole process. Poland proposes to make a uniform extradition law and introduction of reliable European system of immigrants records. Moreover Poland proposes special visas for employees of global companies to make easier for them to enter EU. Another proposal are special guest visas for frequent visitors of EU. All these measures are to be undertaken to avoid the introduction of frontier control on member states internal frontiers.
Poland would also like to fix the date of entrance of Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen area. They were supposed to be accepted in 2011 but it seems to be unrealistic in the present circumstances. Poland emphasizes that the major problem of illegal immigration is caused by poor control on the frontier between Turkey and Greece. It is estimated that more than 150 thousand illegal immigrants pass this frontier illegally every year and visit all the other EU countries. The control of Greek frontier is very bad and in spite of many appeals for action nothing happens. Nowadays we can not expect any action in this direction due to economic crisis in Greece. Poland will have additional strong arguments after publication on September summit the reports about corruption and crime in Romania and Bulgaria proving that both countries are not any threat to other EU member states.
We hope that Polish Presidency will help our partner countries Romania and Bulgaria enter Schengen area and products of E-bridge project will turn out to be more relevant and efficient boosting European mobility in these countries.
