Brussels, 03/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Schengen Area will soon have new rules and new assessment tools, but on Monday 3 June 2013, the European Commission published its third report on the Schengen free circulation area, as requested by EU heads of state in 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring. The first six-monthly report was published in May 2012. The latest report, covering the period from 1 November 2012 to 30 April 2013, found nothing in particular in the way of problems, explains the Commission in a press release, but further information has been requested of Germany and Spain about potential violations of the Schengen rules.
The Commission explains that four investigations are under way, one in Austria, one in the Czech Republic, one in Sweden and one in Slovakia, where the Commission wants to ensure that the freedom to cross internal EU borders is being properly respected. In the six months under study, one Schengen area associated country, Norway, re-introduced border controls for the prize ceremony when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union in December 2012, but then lifted the border controls (which had been authorised under the current Schengen Code). From 3 to 12 December 2012, 3,136 people were checked, 19 were refused entry and 8 were apprehended, explains the Commission. Verification of application of the rules was carried out using spot checks in several participating states (via the Schengen evaluation mechanism) regarding: police cooperation (in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), air borders (in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), land borders (in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and visas (in Estonia, Poland and Slovakia). “These evaluations did not show the type of deficiencies that would require immediate action by the Commission,” explains the Commission.
“From October-December 2012, approximately 13,600 irregular border crossings were detected, which is a 52% reduction compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. While Greece reported more than half of all detections of irregular border crossing from July-September 2012, this situation changed in August 2012, when Greece redeployed around 1,800 border guards at its land border with Turkey.”
“From October-December 2012, Italy reported 31% of all detections (4,231 persons), followed by Greece, reporting 30% of the detections (4,035 persons),” explains a Commission press release.
The report also looks at the number of asylum applications lodged by people from Balkans countries for which a visa facilitation scheme is in force. A number of countries, the Netherlands, Austria and Luxembourg, headed by Germany, asked last year for the visa-free travel scheme to be suspended to prevent the arrival of false asylum-seekers in the countries from the Balkan States, but in January 2013, Frontex reported a 44% fall in the number of asylum applications (often described as “unfounded” applicants) from the Balkans compared with January 2012 for the five main destinations (Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and another country). German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich complained in 2012 about the rising numbers of suspected false asylum applications lodged by Serbs and people from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Frontex says that numbers have fallen here, too, by 61% for asylum-seekers from Serbia, 45% from Montenegro and 46% from FYROM. Asylum applications from Albanians and Bosnians had risen sharply however, by 74% for Albanians and 51% for Bosnians. (SP/transl.fl)