The European Parliament adopted on 24 November, by 619 votes to 45 with 28 abstentions, a resolution calling for a return to a fully functional Schengen area, which has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic since spring 2020.
This resolution follows a petition from the association Open Borders Europe. Carried by MEP Dolors Montserrat (EPP, Spain), she stressed that restrictions on freedom of movement within the EU should remain an exception during the pandemic and recalled “the need for a rapid return to a fully functional Schengen area without internal border controls”.
The European Parliament calls for “more flexibility, localised measures, better coordination and cooperation, and contingency plans to avoid temporary border controls becoming semi-permanent in the future”, says a European Parliament press release.
The negative effects that the closures of the EU’s internal borders have on citizens in border regions and cross-border workers as well as on students and couples living in different countries are highlighted.
Hungary is currently carrying out pandemic-related checks and three other countries, including Finland, have notified extensions to their internal border measures. A handful of Member States carry out internal border controls in connection with the terrorist or migration situation.
Link to the resolution: https://bit.ly/3l2VVsp (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)