Merkel ally calls for EU border police and new commissioner

Berlin (dpa) - A close political associate of German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Thursday for the rapid deployment of a European Union border police force to help counter the flow of migrants into the bloc from the Middle East and Africa.Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader of Merkel‘s Christian Democrats, also called for the EU to create the post of commissioner for its external borders to sit on its executive."Europe has to be prepared to change course completely, given the flow of refugees," Kauder told dpa in Berlin."National member states should be prepared to give up their rights of sovereignty entirely or at least in part," he said, adding that the protection of the EU‘s external borders by individual member states, as currently, was simply not working."Greece, for example, is not in a position either logistically or financially to secure its borders. This has to change completely," Kauder said.Most of the refugees from Syria and Afghanistan enter the EU by making the short, but hazardous, boat trip from the Turkish coast.Kauder said the current EU border protection agency Frontex had to evolve into an independent authority with its own powers "as quickly as possible." Frontex is currently tasked with coordinating national border management, but has limited powers.Kauder‘s call was immediately criticized by Simone Peter, chair of the opposition Green Party, as a policy of exclusion. Instead greater cooperation in rescuing refugees, better distribution across EU member states and efforts to integrate refugees were needed, she said.Speaking in Prague, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called for a joint European solution to the refugee crisis, insisting that Germany was unable to shoulder the burden on its own.Solidarity was not a one-way street, the veteran Christian Democrat said at a meeting of the European People‘s Party, which combines EU Christian Democrats at bloc level."I have always been convinced that crises can also be opportunities," he said.The Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have all opposed proposals for a quota system for refugees entering through Italy and Greece, the main points of entry to the EU.Schaeuble agreed with Czech Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Belobradek that the borders of the Schengen free-travel area had to be better secured."If we achieve better control over the external borders, we will be able to destroy the business model of the human trafficking gangs," Schaeuble said.