The European Commission brought together Member States and the European Parliament on Monday 17 May for a second forum on the future of the Schengen area.
The Commission has launched these Forums to prepare the recast of the free movement area, which will take the form of a new ‘strategy’ scheduled for 2 June, according to the current timetable, with a revision of the ‘Schengen evaluation mechanism’.
The Commission is also preparing a revision of the Schengen Borders Code later this year, as Commissioner Ylva Johansson said in a blog post on Monday. This deeper reform should “respond in a rapid, coordinated and European way to crises involving several Member States and ensure that any internal border control remains an exception to direct, immediate and serious threats and not a precautionary measure against abstract threats”, she commented.
The Commission also intends to publish an annual report on the state of Schengen, a kind of “Schengen scoreboard for a comprehensive overview of challenges” with recommendations.
The Commissioner therefore wanted to hear the views of all these stakeholders on 17 May, as the pandemic has put Schengen under pressure with emergency reintroductions of controls.
She planned to ask them different questions: “How can we meet our current legal and political commitments? On interoperability? On the European Border and Coast Guard? How can technology help manage free movement? And to make internal border controls a measure of last resort?”
“What lessons do you draw from the Covid-19 crisis? How can we restore free movement and safeguard people’s health and safety?”, Ms Johansson asked the Member States. This was also about questioning them on the governance of Schengen.
Tanja Fajon (S&D, Slovenia) spoke on behalf of Parliament and recalled that “the absence of internal border controls is an essential and concrete element of what citizens identify with the European idea and is also crucial for the functioning of the internal market”, according to her speech transmitted by her office.
The S&D member said that the future reform of the Schengen Code should “better define what internal border control really implies”. And the reform of the Schengen evaluation mechanism should “introduce, among other things, clear deadlines for all stages of the procedure” and better monitoring of “serious deficiencies, also at political level”.
Serious attention must also be paid to “persistent and highly credible reports of the use of violence and pushback at the external border” and “ensure that the Rule of law also applies at the external border”.
The Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties will vote on 26 May on a new resolution on the state of Schengen, which will be an opportunity to reiterate Parliament’s position and concerns a few days before the presentation of the new ‘Schengen Strategy’. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)