Approval of emergency border checks

Re-introduction of controls at internal Schengen borders to be allowed in emergency situations.

Members of the EU’s Schengen zone of borderless travel will be allowed to re-introduce checks at their borders with other member states in emergency situations, EU leaders agreed today, on the second day of their summit.

They said that emergency use of border controls would be “a very last resort…in a truly critical situation” and “for a strictly limited scope and period of time”.

The specific conditions that would warrant such a step and the procedures that would need to be followed will be spelled out by the European Commission in a legislative proposal in September.

In their final statement, the leaders stressed that checks would be introduced only if a member state was unable to meet obligations to control illegal migration set out in the Schengen agreement.

The principle of amending the Schengen rules to include what is officially referred to as “a safeguard clause” was not controversial among the member states, diplomats say, but intense negotiations are expected once the Commission presents its proposal in September. Member states are likely to seek a leading role in the activation of the safeguard clause.

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, said that a “joint analysis” by member states and the Commission would determine whether the conditions for a re-introduction of national border checks had been met, but said that the actual decision “will be a national decision”.

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He ruled out any decision by unanimity or qualified majority of member states because “you would never get it”.

Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, which assumes the presidency of the Council of Ministers on 1 July, made it clear that the priority of his government would be to ensure that freedom of movement would not be impeded.

The debate about the Schengen zone and migration issues more generally were supposed to be the focus of the summit. They were, however, eclipsed by discussions on the state of the eurozone.

The new mechanism that the Commission has been asked to devise will include a “series of measures to be applied in a gradual, differentiated and co-ordinated manner in order to assist a member state facing heavy pressure at the external borders”, the summit statement said.

The amendment to the Schengen rules was proposed by France and Italy following a bilateral spat when Italy gave thousands of Tunisian migrants temporary residency papers, enabling them, in principle, to move about within the Schengen zone. Italy’s move prompted France to conduct checks on trains entering France from Italy.

Sarkozy said that today’s agreement was “exactly” what France had called for.

The French leader, who faced heavy criticism last year for repatriating large numbers of Roma migrants, said that use of the mechanism would “not…in any way undermine the free circulation of individuals within Europe”.

Denmark’s borders

Denmark announced this spring that it would re-introduce certain border checks but stressed that this would be done in a manner consistent with Schengen rules.

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said she had held talks with Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s prime minister, over Denmark’s plans. In an apparent attempt to play down the issue, Løkke Rasmussen refused to confirm or deny the talks.

Løkke Rasmussen, who leads a minority government in Denmark, is under pressure from the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party to impose tougher border controls. He agreed to a deal to phase in more checks in exchange for the People’s Party’s support of budgetary and pension reforms.

Schengen enlargement

The leaders also agreed to take greater account of rule-of-law issues in assessing the compliance of member states with the Schengen rules.

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, had demanded that anti-corruption efforts be made an explicit part of the evaluation criteria used to determine whether a country is ready to join the Schengen area, and to decide whether current members meet their obligations.

Bulgaria and Romania saw their hopes of joining the Schengen area this year dashed when a group of member states led by France and Germany objected to their admission. The two countries met the technical criteria for membership earlier this year, in findings that were confirmed by EU interior ministers earlier this month.

The member states will discuss Bulgaria and Romania in the autumn. Diplomats suggested, however, that the best the two countries could hope for was to receive, toward the end of this year, a tentative date for joining.