The European Parliament adopted its opinion on the reform of the Schengen evaluation mechanism by 427 votes to 102 with 24 abstentions, calling for the abolition of any advance warning to Member States for unannounced visits (see EUROPE 12910/25).
The Parliament, which was only consulted on this issue, also requested the right to appoint an observer during visits after a first visit that revealed a serious problem. It also wants the European Commission and the experts conducting follow-up assessments to take into account reports and information provided by NGOs.
One of the sensitive issues of the reform concerns surprise visits to the Member States, which the European Commission had proposed to stop announcing. Member States have identified several situations where 24-hour prior notification will be maintained, except for on-site visits to verify suspected serious violations.
The Parliament provides for a new category of short-notice visits for random compliance checks, with a 24-hour warning. However, unannounced visits where internal border controls have been in place for more than 180 days or where there is evidence of fundamental rights violations will not be notified.
The Council of the EU said it wanted to wait for this opinion before finally adopting the regulation.
The “theory and practice” of the Schengen acquis are “often very far apart”, said rapporteur Sara Skyttedal (EPP, Sweden) in a debate on the evening of Wednesday 6 April.
Commissioner Helena Dalli spoke of the usefulness of these evaluations, which make it possible, for example, to check how the various states share their data with the other Schengen countries, whether they carry out the necessary checks, and whether they respect data protection. Several countries have improved their practices as a result of these assessments, the Commissioner said.
In the Chamber, elected representatives insisted particularly on the evaluations of external borders, where pushback practices have been reported (see other article in this Bulletin).
Link to the opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/15t (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)