The reform of the Schengen Borders Code rules allowing for the reintroduction of temporary controls at internal borders may not be implemented during this legislature.
Despite the efforts of the rapporteur in the European Parliament, Tanja Fajon (S&D, Slovenia), it was not possible to find solutions with the EU Council, which had refused to depart from its mandate in early February (see EUROPE 12192).
The rapporteur's objective, explained her entourage on 27 February, is now to secure the European Parliament’s mandate at first reading in a plenary vote (late March or early April) so that negotiations can resume on this basis after the elections.
A national diplomatic source confirmed that the case was unlikely to succeed during this parliamentary term. Interinstitutional negotiations had quickly become difficult during the trilogue meetings on the issue of safeguards and additional guarantees required from Member States when they wish to reintroduce and extend internal controls.
Parliament had for a time said it was prepared to abandon its requirement for a mandatory Council decision in the event of an extension of these control measures after 6 months. In return, the Council would have followed more criteria and provided more details on the risks justifying these temporary controls.
"There is nothing more we can do", explains the office of the Slovenian, who regrets the general lack of enthusiasm for reforming the current rules, especially among some political groups, who would rather go to the European elections without agreement on these new Schengen rules.
For the EPP delegation in Parliament, this stalemate may not be such bad news, as some of its members, notably French MEP Brice Hortefeux, criticised the Slovenian position adopted in committee (see EUROPE 12123).
These new rules were proposed at the end of 2017 by the Commission (see EUROPE 11871) at the urgent request of several Member States (France and Germany in particular) to give them more flexibility in extending temporary controls, but also to clarify the whole Schengen Borders Code. The Commission had given itself a greater role in the authorisation procedures and had proposed a Council recommendation to extend these controls, a procedure which the Council then deleted from its mandate (see EUROPE 12144). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)