European Commission mulls emergency border controls in Schengen visa-free zone

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Commission has fleshed out contentious plans for emergency border controls in the Schengen visa-free zone, prompting Socialist MEPs to accuse it of caving in to Franco-German pressure for stricter migration rules.

The Schengen system allows hundreds of millions of people to travel without passports in 25 countries, encompassing huge swathes of continental Europe and non-EU countries such as Norway and Switzerland. Ireland and Britain do not participate.

The commission’s proposal to overhaul the system comes in the wake of demands for an overhaul by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Saying the Schengen arrangements should be protected and defended as a “beautiful achievement”, home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmström said she was exploring the feasibility of new border controls to deal with an unexpected influx of migrants.

Formal legislative proposals to revise the Schengen system are likely within the next two months, according a communique on migration she issued on May 4. Her paper also calls for the relaxation in emergency situations of the rules under which applications for asylum must be processed in the EU country of first arrival. Ireland and many other member states have opposed this.

Still, the Socialist group in the European Parliament accused Ms Malmström of taking steps to dismantle the Schengen pact. “Changing a fundamental treaty such as the Schengen agreement would attack the foundation of the EU itself, as freedom of movement is one of the fundamental principle upon which the EU is based,” said the Party of European Socialists.

Ms Malmström said Schengen was “not perfect” and should be improved. While the system has always been monitored under intergovernmental rules outside the ambit of EU law, she said the commission should lead a new evaluation mechanism, Irish Times reported.