European Union interior and justice ministers are meeting today to agree plans to streamline decision-making on asylum and immigration.
The 25 member-states are expected to scrap the requirement for unanimous agreement on immigration policy, in favour of the qualified majority voting (QMV) system, under which larger states like Britain have more clout than EU minnows.
The ministers, meeting in Luxembourg today and tomorrow, will also discuss further harmonisation of national asylum rules, better exchange of information to fight terrorism and the idea of a European public prosecutor.
Under the proposals, the EU would set up teams of national border experts who could help member states monitor and protect their borders with non-EU neighbours. These teams could at a later stage become a European border guard.
The bloc's expansion eastwards this year means it now shares a long border with countries like Russia and Ukraine.
"The question of whether the teams of national experts can ultimately be converted into a European corps of border guards should be examined," said a draft of the EU's multi-annual programme for policy in justice and home affairs.
The border guard idea has been rejected before because some states believe protection of external borders is a national and not an EU matter.
Agencies