EU states urged to lift internal border controls: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - European Union countries are being urged to lift internal border controls before the end of the year, to save the “crowning achievement” of the passport-free travel zone from total collapse, according to a draft report by the European commission, the Guardian says.

Walls, fences and border checks have returned across Europe as the EU struggles to cope with the biggest inflow of refugees since the end of the Second World War. Since September 2015, eight countries in the 26-nation passport-free Schengen zone have re-instated border checks.

These controls “place into question the proper functioning of the Schengen area of free movement”, according to the draft report seen by the Guardian, which will be published on Friday, March 4. “It is now time for member states to pull together in the common interest to safeguard one of the union’s crowning achievements.”

The passport-free travel zone, which stretches from Iceland to Greece but does not include the UK or Ireland, has been under unprecedented pressure; its collapse could unravel decades of European integration.

The commission wants member states to lift border controls “as quickly as possible” and with “a clear target date of November 2016”. But Brussels also wants tighter control of the EU’s external border and will repeat warnings that Greece could be kicked out of Schengen if it fails to improve border management by May.

In mid-March the commission will set out a list of options for reforming EU asylum policy. The favoured idea is a permanent system of relocation, where refugees are shared out around the union, depending on the wealth and size of a country.

The report, according to the Guardian, warns that reimposing national border controls will damage business and deter tourists, especially high-spending Asian tourists, who will restrict their itinerary to “all but the most popular EU destinations”.

Restoring internal border controls would result in immediate costs of up to €18bn a year or 0.13% of the annual output of the Schengen area, it says. But that bill is expected to rise, with businesses and the tourist industry expected to lose billions more.