On Monday 7 October in Strasbourg, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, reminded the Member States of the Schengen area that internal border controls must always remain “temporary” and a measure “of last resort”.
The debate was inspired in particular by the new measures announced in Germany following the terrorist attack in Solingen at the end of August.
While she acknowledged that they “have the right to introduce” these measures, she assured MEPs that the Commission was “working tirelessly with the Member States” to “lift internal border controls” and that alternative measures to internal controls should always “remain the priority”.
Internal border controls must be temporary, proportionate and a measure of last resort only in the event of a serious threat to public order or internal security, she said. “And though Member States have the right to introduce temporary border controls under strict conditions, it’s clear that they risk undermining the benefits of free movement”.
“We all want to stop criminals and terrorists, but we don’t want to stop travel, trade and tourism”.
Member States may “use alternatives such as joint patrols, joint investigations, joint police stations and, when there are border checks, these must have as little impact as possible on cross-border traffic and must take into account all those people”.
The Commissioner also felt that Schengen had been greatly strengthened in recent years, with a “new mandate for Europol, more powers, more resources, more staff, new laws and initiatives to boost police cooperation”. Governance has also been strengthened with a new reform.
On Thursday 10 October, at the meeting of Interior Ministers, she will also call for the integration of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen area to be “carried out” by taking “the last step”.
Eurobarometer. On Tuesday 8 October, the Commission published two new investigations into the Schengen area. Citizens consider closer cooperation within the Schengen area (63%) to be the EU’s main priority for strengthening the area until 2030; 83% of companies agree that Schengen is good for business. A third of companies said that the absence of internal border controls reduced costs.
Link to surveys: https://aeur.eu/f/drm (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)