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Finland cautious about joint EU border troops for Schengen area

Xinhua, December 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Finland kept cautious towards a planned proposal to create a border force to guard the external EU frontiers in case of emergency, fearing it may infringe its sovereignty.

According to a plan being prepared within the European Commission, the border guards could be deployed even without the approval of the member countries, local media reported on Friday.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said late Friday that the thought of limiting a country' s power of decision seems to be "fairly far-reaching."

Finland is one of the Schengen countries and shares a long land border with a non-EU country -- Russia.

In an interview on Finnish national radio, Niinisto said the assistance will certainly be welcome to "those who want it."

He noted that in today' s situation all states "perhaps are not capable of the duties."

Earlier in the day, chairman of the Finnish Parliamentary Defence Committee Ilkka Kanerva, who was also cautious about the proposal, said he did not believe EU countries would give up their sovereignty in border issues.

An opposition by two thirds of the EU countries would be enough to block the plan to send border troops to a country, Finnish national broadcaster Yle quoted sources in Brussels as saying.

An Yle analysis said that such a front of opposition could hardly be ever created against the backdrop of the current refugee crisis. Endi