To Intervene or Not to Intervene? Positions of the Member States Towards the Article 18 of the European Border and Coast Guard Proposal

Abstract

The paper is focused on how the “migration crisis” starting in 2015 in Europe have reshaped the attitude to the European level of border protection. The basic question is how different are the competences of European Border and Coast Guard Agency (EBCG) from the previous FRONTEX and what was the role sovereignty played in it. The paper has a character of a qualitative study where the authors compare the proposal for EBCG, mainly its Article 18 establishing the “right to intervene” in the proposal, with the final version of the document and analyzes the position of the Member states based on their posititions within the Council to the parts of the proposal that were most connected to sovereignty. The analysis is based on data collection from officials from various member states that were part of the negotiations. Apart from this “hidden agenda” the authors also analyze public statements by high-ranking government officials that often commented on the proposal.