Brussels, 03/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 2 May, MEPs from the European Parliament's civil liberties committee expressed their doubts about the temporary reintroduction of checks at the borders of Schengen area member states. This option has been requested by several member states and is being explored by the Commission in its 4 May communication on immigration into the EU (see other article).
During a debate attended by Commission staff, MEPs indicated in an EP press release that the Schengen area should not be weakened and that any checks at internal borders would require strict justification.
On 26 April, a joint letter from Italy and France on the subject of internal borders was put on the table in an effort to settle the conflict pitting the two countries against each other on the issue of Tunisian migrants who have arrived in Lampedusa over recent months. France and Italy are not the only countries concerned by this issue and Germany, for example, also gave its support to a rethink on new Schengen governance.
In its communication of 4 May, the Commission is expected to support these demands and at the same time advocate the strengthening of the EU's external borders through the Frontex agency and increasing budgetary resources for EU migration policies. On the issue of Schengen, the commissioner for home affairs is expected to put forward the idea of a Community mechanism for temporarily reintroducing border controls as a last resort measure. This will require a European level decision and will subsequently replace the unilateral reintroduction of border controls by member states.
Nonetheless, these assurances failed to totally convince MEPs and the rapporteur for the civil liberties committee, Carlos Coelho (EPP, Portugal), is therefore demanding that certain precautions be taken in this regard. He underlined that Schengen is synonymous with the freedom of movement and one of Europe's defining symbols. Coelho acknowledged that “we should have a European approach” and stressed that these subjects should be discussed within the new Schengen evaluation system. The latter is already being discussed at the EP and the Council, following Commission proposals formulated in November 2010, which aimed to provide the Commission with more power in scrutinising the application of Schengen rules by member states and in the long-term, carrying out random internal border checks of the member states. So far, this monitoring has been carried out within the framework of a “peer review”, namely, by the member states themselves. This creates a problem because certain member states are not yet in favour of this “Community” control and would like (according to certain sources at the EP) to limit the EP's active role or indeed revoke the co-decision clause with regard to the Schengen evaluation system.
Jan Mulder MEP (ALDE, the Netherlands) explained that there were still a number of questions involving the practicalities of new Schengen governance and asked: “Is it physically possible to reintroduce border checks? How will this be done?” He mentioned the possibility of sizeable traffic jams developing at the German-Dutch border. Sophia in't Veld (ALDE, the Netherlands) stressed that the number of requests to temporarily reintroduce border controls was already increasing and asked whether these requests were justified. Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) said that the “Council is not willing to deal with migration”. She called for a clear definition of the term “temporary” within the framework of reintroducing border controls. Franziska Keller (Greens/EFA, Germany) asked: “What are the specific cases and who decides what is urgent or not?”
Marcin Grabiec, the spokesman for Commissioner Malmström, said at this stage there are no legislative proposals yet (4 May), only “strategic” orientations, which will need to be discussed by EU home affairs ministers on 12 May and which could be the subject of concrete legislative proposals on 24 May. This is the date when the Commission is also expected to adopt proposals on the integration of migrants in the EU and a working document on the EU's asylum system. (S.P./transl.fl)