While it intends to propose a new reform of the Schengen Borders Code by the end of the year, after the failure of the 2017 reform, the Commission will launch a discussion on Wednesday 2 June with the Member States on how to preserve the free movement area, which has been badly affected since the Covid-19 pandemic, and to protect it in particular from unilateral decisions.
It will accompany this discussion with a review of the Schengen evaluation mechanism, as Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said recently after the second annual Schengen Forum (see EUROPE 12720/7), to address shortcomings more quickly.
In its strategy, of which EUROPE has seen a version dated 26 May, the Commission notes how the area of free movement constitutes the “DNA” of Europe, the area comprising 26 countries and 420 million people, 150 million of whom live in a border region. It also highlights that 3.5 million people cross an internal Schengen border every day. In this sense, the impact of the controls reintroduced as a matter of urgency in the spring of 2020 has been hard felt, as the European Parliament recently reminded us (see EUROPE 12727/6).
At this stage, however, the Commission is only making recommendations and issuing a reminder of future initiatives. Only later this year will it say whether its reform of the Schengen Code will indeed limit the grounds for reintroducing border controls, as some Member States have repeatedly extended their measures since 2015, justified by migration crises and terrorist attacks. The 2017 reform failed precisely because of the refusal of some to lose their flexibility.
On 2 June, the Commission is therefore expected to propose a fairly general strategy, not yet likely to offend the Member States, and to link it to other initiatives on the table.
It will be based around three pillars, according to the document: - effective protection at the external borders (the Pact on Migration and Asylum provides for this, in particular with filtering of migrants on arrival); - measures to compensate for the absence of internal border controls (through the common visa policy, return policy or the use of various databases and IT tools); - the governance pillar, including a better evaluation mechanism and better anticipation.
As regards the external borders, the Commission notes that the systematic surveillance of people arriving in Schengen was already decided a few years ago, notably with systematic controls at the external borders, including for European nationals. However, Member States have had difficulties in implementing all these measures (which include, inter alia, an entry/exit system, the ETIAS system, the new version of the Schengen Information System): they must therefore remedy this.
On the second part, the Commission highlights that it will table a code of European police cooperation in 2021, review the decisions known as ‘Prüm’ decisions, and in 2022, the API directive on air passenger data, which will now cover intra-Schengen flights, the document notes.
Furthermore, on the governance side, the Commission indicates that it will draw lessons from the pandemic in the future reform of the Border Code and will ensure that internal border controls remain a measure of last resort justified by concrete cases of threat.
Reinforced inspections
This year, it will also reinforce the “green lanes” approach, which was put in place in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, by adapting it to any form of crisis. And for the Schengen evaluation mechanism, it intends to withdraw the 24-hour information notice sent to national authorities when an inspection is being prepared, in order to make it more effective.
The Commission also promises in this document to make a quicker link between the deficiencies observed and the use of infringement proceedings, a tool it has not dared to use until now, which the European Parliament has been critical of. And like the European Parliament, the Commission will also call on the Member States to finally include Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia into Schengen. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)