Sweden gets EU Commissioner for Home Affairs
Sweden’s Cecilia Malmström is proposed to get the post as EU Commissioner with responsibility for border control, police cooperation and security issues.
Malmström was awarded the portfolio by Commission president José Manuel Barroso in Brussels last Friday. Her nomination has to be approved by the European Parliament before the new commissioner can start her new job, however. That will most likely happen in mid-January.
The 41-year old Swede will get the responsibility for EU’s external border control, including the border to Russia. Earlier this year, BarentsObserver reported about the establishment of EU border squads that could directly and efficiently assist the national border guard services of Member States in such situation, including with regard to the correct implementation of the Schengen Border Code.
This squad, called EUs Rapid Border Intervention Team (RBIT), will be one of the border related issues Malmström will be responsible for.
- I am proud to be entrusted with some of the toughest challenges facing the European Union. For me as a liberal, it will be an honour to lead the Union’s fight against cross-border crime and human trafficking, and to put in place a common asylum policy while also creating ways for legal migration to Europe, Cecilia Malmström write in her blog.
- My task will be to put this into practice, Malmström writes.
Today, Cecilia Malmström is the Swedish Minister for European Affairs.
