The EU Ministers for Home Affairs took note, on Thursday 9 December, of the progress report prepared by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council on the revision of the Schengen area evaluation mechanism, presented in June and which aims to strengthen the monitoring and surveillance pillars of Schengen governance (see EUROPE 12732/7).
The new mechanism should be able to identify significant deficiencies in a timely manner and to remedy them quickly by, inter alia, shortening procedural deadlines and strengthening the assessment of compliance with fundamental rights.
In its report to the ministers, the Slovenian Presidency considered that work “has advanced at a steady pace” and that “major progress has been made”, but it is now necessary to wait for the opinion of the European Parliament before work can continue. There is also little enthusiasm for certain avenues, such as unannounced inspections.
“Not only have Member States welcomed several aspects of the proposal, such as the extension of the evaluations cycle from five to seven years and a reduction in the frequency of reporting in the implementation of the action plans from three to six months,” but “a number of other elements of the mechanism can also be (in principle) considered to have been agreed upon, requiring only minor technical adjustments“, says the Slovenian Presidency.
At the same time, it identified several issues for which “adequate solutions have yet to be found”.
In particular, Member States expressed their disagreement with the surprise inspection measures proposed by the Commission, which would no longer use, or only in very rare cases, the 24-hour advance notice. "Most Member States have expressed their disagreement with this approach, for various, mostly practical, reasons”, the paper says.
The Presidency also considers “it necessary to further clarify the distribution of responsibilities in the cooperation between the Commission and the Council under this mechanism”.
The Commission proposes that the EU Council should give the Commission more implementing powers than those conferred by the current Regulation, but this “raises questions about the peer-to-peer’ nature” of the mechanism.
In particular, the EU Council is examining the merits of the Commission’s proposal for more frequent use of the comitology procedure.
As regards the scope of the mechanism, Member States regret that the Commission has removed the system from the list of policy areas to be assessed in order to give itself more flexibility. “Most Member States opposed this approach”.
Member States have also not yet acted on the Commission’s suggestion that country assessment reports should no longer be classified as restricted documents, as this too requires further reflection, says the progress report.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/3ydON4z (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)