Brussels, 12/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 12 June, the Schengen area of free movement in Europe finally got its new governance rules when MEPs approved the two draft items of legislation on a new assessment mechanism and on the temporary return to internal border controls.
Two items of legislation were endorsed by the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg last week, and will be formally adopted by the Council in the autumn. Initially launched in 2011 in the wake of the Arab spring, when thousands of immigrants suddenly arrived at the borders of Europe, the changes to the Schengen area (created in 1995) soon became controversial, with parliamentarians accusing the politicians heading the call for reform (Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi) of being motivated by populism. Two years later, however, the reforms passed are still being criticised by a number of groups at the European Parliament (EP). The Greens/EFA Group says that, although the worst case scenario has been avoided (the ability unilaterally to restore border controls between Schengen countries), the EU has nonetheless missed the opportunity to create a fully European area of democracy, as French MEP Hélène Flautre put it. The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said that the reforms were positive and would lead to a stronger, more European, Schengen area, but admitted that the EP would have preferred to go further.
Agreement was reached in a three-way meeting on 30 May on the two items of legislation approved by the EP on Wednesday. The two go hand-in-hand because the Schengen Assessment System will be used to decide whether or not any temporary return to border controls will be possible. In June 2012, the Council of Ministers and European Parliament clashed when the ministers ejected the EP from the codecision process for any changes to the mechanism, giving it solely the right to be consulted. The EP failed to win its case and will only be consulted on such matters in the future, but the assessment mechanism will be made a little more accountable in that the Commission has been given greater surveillance powers and has been given an observer role in the assessment currently being carried out by the member states.
Teams of experts from the Commission, member states and the EP will be allowed to carry out spot checks on border controls between member states to see whether Schengen is working well in practice. The Schengen Assessment Mechanism will make it possible, under the second item of legislation endorsed by the EP on Wednesday, to restore border controls for a period of between six months and two years, in the event of serious failures by a country to properly monitor the EU's common borders. The Commission will be involved in this process and will make recommendations to the Council of Ministers, but the need for the border controls will be examined at EU level, based on objective criteria. The Commission will also be able to intervene as a last resort, if all other solutions have failed (financial aid or intervention by the Frontex agency). Existing practices are re-stated in the legislation. Member states will still have the power to restore border controls along their borders for ten days in response to a sudden emergency, but any extension beyond ten days will require validation from the EU. For predictable events, like a NATO summit, Schengen countries will be allowed to close their borders for 30 days. (SP/transl.fl)