On Tuesday 24 May, the European Commission presented its first annual State of Schengen Report, as it had promised to do in June 2021 when presenting its strategy for the Schengen area.
The document is accompanied by a report on the systematic controls at the external borders decided in the wake of the terrorist attacks and a document on a multi-annual strategy for the integrated management of the Schengen area. Its findings will be passed on to both the EU Council and the European Parliament, meeting on 2 June in the Schengen Forum, and to the EU Home Affairs Ministers meeting on 10 June in Luxembourg, who will meet in a second Schengen Council.
In its 2022 report, the Commission presents policy recommendations to ensure that internal border controls remain an effective measure of last resort, to strengthen the management of external borders and to enhance internal security through police cooperation to replace internal border controls.
On all these subjects, the Commission has already made legislative proposals in December and the next Home Affairs Council of the EU on 10 June may result in agreements on certain texts relating to police cooperation such as Prüm 2 or the Schengen Borders Code.
The report goes back over all these proposals.
The Commission also discusses the various changes to the Frontex agency and gives an update on migration trends at the external borders with 200,000 irregular border crossings reported by Frontex in 2021.
Internal border controls reintroduced more than 280 times since 2015
On internal border controls, it said that since 2015, these measures have been reintroduced more than 280 times, in connection with the migration crisis, terrorist risks and then Covid-19.
The Commission also explains that recent Court of Justice rulings have given a stricter reading to these extension measures and it is reviewing the “most recent notifications” of return to internal border controls “in the light of these judgements”.
The paper also talks about the progress to be made on returns when “every year, around 400,000 third-country nationals” are ordered to leave the EU, “but only 140,000 of them (less in 2020, also due to restrictive measures to contain the pandemic) actually return to a third country”, of which around 45% are voluntary returns.
The paper on systematic external border controls, including on EU nationals, looks at how states have complied with this obligation since 2017, including by hiring staff at airports.
The Integrated Border Management Policy also lists policy priorities, including: - strengthening cooperation between Member States and authorities involved in search and rescue; - strengthening operational measures, in particular as regards the return of persons who have been subject to a return decision issued by a Member State; - implementing the new large-scale EU IT systems.
For border controls, the aim is to improve border control procedures and the preparation of border guards to assist and identify victims of crime.
Schengen, ongoing discussions on reform
The Member States, for their part, continued, on Monday 23 May, their discussions on the reform of the Schengen Borders Code. This time it was about the adjustments that the French Presidency of the Council of the EU has made to the arrangements for extending controls.
A further discussion could take place on the 1st of June. Feedback was mixed, with delegations feeling that the additions do not yet provide sufficient protection for Schengen from the multiple re-introduction of controls, and delegations saying that the momentum for improvement is good and that the Presidency wants to be constructive with the countries most concerned about these internal border measures.
Link to documents: https://aeur.eu/f/1su (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)