Brussels, 29/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 25 February, the European Commission criticised Belgium having invoked the wrong article of the Schengen Border Code to justify the controls on its border with France for a month in order to respond to the dismantling of the Calais jungle, La Libre Belgique reported on 27 February.
Under articles 23 and 24 of the Code, the reintroduction of internal border controls must be notified to the Commission and the member states ahead of the planned reintroduction (at least four weeks or less, if the circumstances leading to the reintroduction of these controls were known at least four weeks before the move), Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos explains in a letter to the Belgian authorities.
“In cases which require immediate action, as that which seems to be described in your letter, article 25 of the Schengen Border Code applies. In such cases, border controls may only be brought in for a period of ten days”, the letter reads. The Commission also calls upon Belgium, if it plans to activate article 25, to “explain the nature of the serious threat to public policy and internal security and to provide figures or other information demonstrating the need and proportionality of the decision to reintroduce temporary controls on the borders”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)