On Thursday 14 September, at the end of a meeting of ministers for home affairs, the European Commission confirmed that it would be presenting a proposal at the end of September for adapting the Schengen border code to new terrorist threats.
The controls that five countries are currently carrying out at their internal borders (Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway) in response to exceptional immigration flows are expected, on the other hand, to come to an end at the end of November, as stipulated in article 29 of the Schengen Code.
These countries may still be able to draw from another basis to the Schengen border code, which is used by the French to deal with terrorist threats, in an effort to reintroduce internal border control measures for a six-month renewable period, explained one source.
This would be used to make the utilisation of the different legal foundations of the Schengen code more flexible and to adapt the rules to terrorist threats that are now longer than the Commission will be proposing in this adaptation of the Schengen border code. The Commission therefore gave its support to the proposals circulated a little earlier in the day by the countries affected by the forthcoming termination of the control measures involved with France.
The European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said that, “We need to defend Schengen”. He also said that, “Migration controls must end, that’s quite clear. But the Commission recognises that new security challenges have appeared” recently.
In an informal document, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden and Denmark explain that the current formulation, paragraph 4 of the article 25 limits to 6 months, the duration of any reintroduction of internal border controls due to serious threats to public order or home security.
Whilst expressing a wish for the current procedure to be maintained (notification to the Commission and member states), they explain in writing that, “This limitation does not correspond to the needs in the context of a long-term terrorist threat. It is necessary to allow a member state to reintroduce controls at its internal borders for a duration that is longer than six months. The reason for these controls for a period that is longer than six months, will continue to involve the particular seriousness or the threat to internal security and the long-term nature of this threat”.
The text suggests that these controls could therefore last for four years and indicates that, “the total period during which controls are reintroduced at internal borders, including any extension, should not be longer than two years. When exceptional circumstances exist as covered by article 29, this total period could be extended for a maximum period of two years”.
This proposal put forward by these member states will not necessarily be accepted as it stands by the Commission. It was not really discussed this Thursday by the ministers and only France mentioned this document. Slovenia pointed out the importance of maintaining Schengen, explained one source. Arriving in Brussels, the Slovakian Minister for home affairs, Robert Kalinak, explained that this proposal was not necessarily justifiable and that, “I think that it is more of a political question than a real need” to have these controls at the borders. He added that, “after the elections, the situation will be very different”.
Member states lagging behind on European PNR
The member states also examined their respective action against terrorism and pointed out the importance of exchanging information. According to one source, the project for an intelligence unit announced by Jean-Claude Juncker the previous day during his speech on the state of the union (see EUROPE 11861), is not expected to produce much enthusiasm but rather, represent another practical difficulty for the member states, explained this source.
The Commission also urged those lagging behind in the implementation of the European PNR (the project for collecting airline passenger data in the EU) is expected to be operational by May 2018. On the issue of the PNR with Canada, the Commission confirmed that it would be reopening negotiations with Canada, which is said to be in favour of it. The European Court of Justice invalidated this draft agreement in its current form on 26 July last. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)