The Commission is proposing to establish a European Border and Coast Guard and also to introduce systematic checks against relevant databases for all people entering and exiting the Schengen area.

Justice and Home Affairs Ministers met in Brussels to discuss how to strengthen the following measures, inter alia: EU Passenger Name Record Directive, controls of external borders, information sharing and law enforcement cooperation.

Today, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the "Smart Borders Package", one of the priorities included in the European Agenda on Migration. All citizens (EU nationals and non-EU nationals) and organisations are invited to contribute.

A 10 point action plan of the immediate actions has been presented by Commissioner Avramopoulos and received the full backing of Foreign and Interior Ministers.

On Sunday, 15 March the project on Smart Borders Pilot reached the next milestone - the execution phase – in Lisbon Airport, Portugal.