259 Miguel A. Acosta Sánchez Regarding the scope of competence of peacekeeping... and more specifically within the European Migration Agenda for 201557, it was propo-sed to resort to military means to fight criminality, seeking to reinforce the presence of the EU at sea and prevent illegal flows of immigration. Military operation EUNAVFOR MED Sophia58, in force presently until Novem-ber 2018, emerges from this proposal. The mission concentrates on three different well-defined areas59: i) As a central task60, to detect, capture and eliminate the ships and other means that the border-crossers or traffickers in persons use or are suspected of using, as per the applicable international Law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as well as the mandates of the Security Council. Within this original competence, Operation Sophia will take action in three con-secutive phases: PHASE I: supports the detection and monitoring of the migration networks through the collection of information and using patrols on the high seas in accordan-ce with international law. PHASE II: This phase started on 7 October 2015 and consists of boarding, sear-ching, imprisoning and diverting on the high seas the ships suspected of being used for illegal trafficking or human trafficking, in accordance with the pertinent interna-tional laws, included in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea61, and 57 Doc. COM (2015) 240 final, Communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament, to the Council, to the European Economic and Social Committee, and to the Committee of the Regions: A European Migration Agenda, of 05.13.2015, available at https://eur-lex.europa. eu/homepage.html?locale=es. Also see, Conclusions of the European Committee, of March 2015 (EUCO 11/15, of 03.20.2015) and Conclusions of the European Council, of June 2015 (EUCO 22/15, of 06.26.2015), available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/es/european-council/conclusions/. See DEL VALLE, A., «Unión Europea, crisis de refugiados y limes imperii”», Revista General de Derecho Europeo, 2016, n. º 38. 58 Decision 2015/778/PESC of the Council, of 18 May 2015, on an EU military operation in the South Central Mediterranean, DO, L 122, of 05.19.2015, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage. html?locale=es. See Resolution of the Security Council 2240 (2015) of 9 October. 59 An extension of functions has been granted by Decision 2016/993/PESC of the Council, of 20 June 2016 (DO, L 162, of 21 June 2016) and by Decision 2016/2314/PESC of the Council, of 19 December 2016 (DO, L 345, of 12.20.2016). See VACAS FERNÁNDEZ, F., “The European operations in the Mediterranean Sea to deal with migration as a symptom. From the Italian operation Mare Nostrum to Frontex operations Triton and Posseidon, EUNAVFOR-MED and NATO’s assistance in the Aegean Sea”, Spanish Yearbook of International Law, 2016, n.º 20, pp. 93-117, on pp. 103-106. 60 So it was considered by the Council, in its Conclusions dated o6 02 17, classifying the other two tasks as “of support.” See, Conclusions of the Council on Libya, of (Council Doc. 5321/17), available at http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-5321-2017-INIT/es/pdf. Along the same lines, Conclusions of the European Council of June 2017 (EUCO 8/17, of 23.06.2017). 61 Published in the BOE (Spanish Official Gazette), n.º 39, of 02.14.1997 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 12 - Año: 2018 - Págs.: 239 a 272
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