Today the European Commission presented several proposals to combat illegal immigration and organised crime. The Commission proposed the creation of an electronic register of the entry/exit of third country nationals and the creation of a European border surveillance system (Eurosur) to combat illegal border crossings.

ALDE Group leader Graham Watson fears that a Big Brother mentality is taking over in Europe: "We demand to know what all the biometrics proposals the Commission has been rolling out in piecemeal fashion will amount to, so we can ensure that the total legislative outcome does not exceed the sum of its parts. Amassing information on travellers is a must for efficient border controls. However we need tight checks on who can access this data to guarantee it will not be used for other purposes. The careless loss of personal data by certain national governments in recent months shows how easy it is to misuse".

Sarah Ludford (UK, LibDem), Parliament´s rapporteur on the Visa Information System and profiling warns of the potential for discrimination as a result of the entry-exit system.

"I would like to know from the Commission and the Council if they will use 'profiling' for third country entrants. And if so, what the parameters are for defining if someone is a potential terrorist or not. At all costs we have to make sure we will not discriminate against minorities at the borders of the EU", she said.

President of the Civil Liberties Committee Gérard Deprez (MR, Belgium) supports the Commission proposals for the creation of a European border surveillance system:

"The Commission report on the evaluation and the future development of the FRONTEX agency contains a number of relevant recommendations for the future stressing in particular the importance of providing the Agency with an inventory of available technical equipment (CRATE) for use in rapid intervention teams (RABIT) as well as proposals for a possible European border-guard service.
 
I also welcome the emphasis for FRONTEX to reinforce the training of border guards who are often confronted with difficult situations."