EU leaders consider two-year suspension of Schengen rules
Leaders will consider emergency measures to reintroduce internal borders at meeting on Monday, as France warns the entire European project is in ‘very grave danger’
TelegraphUK: The Schengen system of free movement could be suspended for two years under emergency measures to be discussed by European ministers on Monday, as the French Prime Minister warned the crisis could bring down the entire European Union.
Manuel Valls said that the “very idea of Europe” will be torn apart until the flows of migrants expected to surge in spring are turned away.
On Monday, interior ministers from the EU will meet in Amsterdam to discuss emergency measures to allow states to reintroduce national border controls for two years.
The powers are allowed under the Schengen rules, but would amount to an unprecedented abandonment of the 30-year old agreement that allows passport-free travel across 26 states.
The measure could be brought in from May, when a six-month period of passport checks introduced by Germany expires. The European Commission would have to agree that there are “persistent serious deficiencies” in the Schengen zone’s external border to activate it.
“This possibility exists, it is there and the Commission is prepared to use it if need be,” said Natasha Bertaud, a spokesman for Jean-Claude Juncker.
Greece has been blamed by states for failing to identify and register hundreds of thousands of people flowing over its borders.
Other states that have introduced emergency controls are Sweden, Austria, France, Denmark and Norway, which is not in the EU but is in Schengen.
“We’re not currently in that situation,” Ms Bertaud added. “But interior ministers will on Monday in Amsterdam have the opportunity to discuss and it’s on the agenda what steps should be taken or will need to be taken once we near the end of the maximum period in May.”
Theresa May, the British Home Secretary, will attend the meeting.
in numbers
European refugee crisis
Pic: Action Press/REX Shutterstock1 million
Refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe via illegal routes
38 percent
Proportion of migrants who are from Syria
1,200,000
Syrian refugees being housed in Lebanon – a country 100 times smaller than Europe
One in five
Proportion of people in Lebanon who are refugees
1 in 122
According to the head of the UN refugee agency, one in 122 people is a refugee
1.2 percent
Proportion of migrants who land in Italy and Greece, then get as far as Calais
100,000
Illegal migrants were stopped from entering Britain by UK Border Force officials in 2015
15 per cent
Proportion of female refugees from Syria who are pregnant in Turkey
Data as of November 2015
In a further blow, Mr Valls said that France would keep its state of emergency, which has included border checks, until the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant network is destroyed.
“It is a total and global war that we are facing with terrorism,” he said.
He warned that without proper border controls to turn away refugees, the 60-year old European project could disintegrate.
“It’s Europe that could die, not the Schengen area. If Europe can’t protect its own borders, it’s the very idea of Europe that could be thrown into doubt. It could disappear, of course – the European project, not Europe itself, not our values, but the concept we have of Europe, that the founding fathers had of Europe.
Migrants help children go over a fence as refugees waits to cross the Slovenian-Austrian border in Sentilj, Slovenia
“Yes, that is in very grave danger. That’s why you need border guards, border controls on the external borders of the European Union.”
He said Europe must tell refugees that they cannot expect to reach Europe.
“We cannot say or accept that all refugees can be welcomed in Europe,”
“Germany is faced with a major challenge. We need to help Germany. But the first message we need to send now is with the greatest of firmness is to say that we will not welcome all the refugees in Europe. Because a message that says come, you will be welcome, provokes major shifts,” he told the BBC.
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister, said that a fence should be erected on the Macedonian and Bulgarian borders with Greece to curb the inflow of migrants into Europe.
Stefan Lofven, the Swedish Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, have each in the past week said that leaders have until March to save the Schengen zone.
Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that is the Schengen zone dies then the euro and the single market could follow.
The Schengen Agreement
What is it?
An agreement, signed in 1985 in the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, to remove border checks within Europe. It means anyone, regardless of nationality, can move freely between member states without showing a passport or visa
Who is a member?
Not the UK. But most EU states are in, as are Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. In total, 26 countries comprising 400 million people
Why is it under strain?
Terrorists and mass migration. Police checks have been brought in on the Italian border at the request of Bavaria, amid a wave of non-EU migrants attempting to reach Germany. Angela Merkel warns the system will be pulled apart unless countries share asylum seekers. And Belgium wants more ID checks on trains in the wake of the Thalys train terrorist attack
Are checks legal?
Police are allowed to make targeted ‘security’ checks on the border, and states can impose border controls in an emergency or for major events for up to 30 days. But permanent, systematic checks on passports are forbidden
What does the European Union say?
Jean Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, says the system is non-negotiable, irreversible, and the EU’s greatest achievement
What do Eurosceptics say?
“Schengen has now hit the buffers of the real world and is falling apart,” says Nigel Farage, Ukip leader
Austria announced on Wednesday that it planned to limit the number of people allowed to apply for asylum to 1.5 percent of its population over the next four years, or 37,500.
The move piles more pressure on Angela Merkel, who is facing intense demands from her conservative allies to follow suit.
EU border agency Frontex said on Friday some 108,000 migrants arrived in December in Greece.
That compares to 150,000 arrivals in November and puts the total for Greece and Italy at 1.04 million in 2015, or five times as many as in 2014, Frontex said.
Crossings have slowed due to the cold weather, and are expected to surge when the spring returns.
