EU Debates Whether Open Border Policy Is Too Open

Europe’s parties are divided over a proposal by the union’s executive body, the European Commission, to adjust migration policies to better deal with large influxes of migrants.
EU Debates Whether Open Border Policy Is Too Open
COMMON CAUSE: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) shake hands at the end of a summit on April 26 in Rome. The two leaders are spearheading a call to allow EU member states to reimpose internal border controls more easily. (Andreas Solaro/Getty Images )
5/5/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/BORDER-113176867.jpg" alt="COMMON CAUSE: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) shake hands at the end of a summit on April 26 in Rome. The two leaders are spearheading a call to allow EU member states to reimpose internal border controls more easily. (Andreas Solaro/Getty Images )" title="COMMON CAUSE: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) shake hands at the end of a summit on April 26 in Rome. The two leaders are spearheading a call to allow EU member states to reimpose internal border controls more easily. (Andreas Solaro/Getty Images )" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1804416"/></a>
COMMON CAUSE: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (R) shake hands at the end of a summit on April 26 in Rome. The two leaders are spearheading a call to allow EU member states to reimpose internal border controls more easily. (Andreas Solaro/Getty Images )
Europe’s parties are divided over a proposal by the union’s executive body, the European Commission, to adjust migration policies to better deal with large influxes of migrants.

At the heart of the matter is the Schengen Agreement, one of the pillar’s of the European Union, allowing the free travel between most of the EU’s member states.

A row, prompted by French President Nicolas Sarkoy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the recent arrival of some 25,000 Tunisian refugees, resulted in the two leaders calling for a change to the Schengen treaty.

The main change proposed to the treaty would be for individual nations to have the ability to temporarily restore national border controls if there are “exceptional difficulties in managing the common external borders.” For years, Europe’s external borders, particularly in southern Europe, have had difficulty copping with large numbers of refugees from Northern Africa, and other parts of the world.

The call from the two leaders came after Sarkozy’s fierce reaction to the arrival of thousands of Tunisian refugees in France after Italy issued them six-month visas. Italy, which is one of Europe’s main entry points for African migrants, issued the visas in reaction to a refusal by other member states to share the burden of the immigration stream.

“Recent events [across North Africa] have also triggered concerns about the functioning of the Schengen system,” Cecilia Malmstrom, EU commissioner responsible for Home Affairs, said on Wednesday.

“To safeguard the stability of the Schengen area, it may also be necessary to foresee the temporary reintroduction of limited internal border controls under very exceptional circumstances,” she said.

While the proposed changes to the Schengen treaty have been welcomed by the center-right European People’s Party, the Liberals and Socialists have deplored the move, arguing they see no reason to change one of the foundational principles of the European Union.

Despite the commotion around the possible changes to Schengen, little is expected to change in the near future.

“We do not need to give in to short-term approaches to border control and populist and simplistic solutions,” Malmstrom said.

Immigration has been a major political theme across Europe, which has played an increasingly important role in national elections. Right-wing parties carrying anti-immigration messages have gained political ground across Europe in recent years.

In 2009, the EU had about 570,000 irregular migrants from third countries. Nearly one-third of them have since been returned to their countries of origin.

The current influx of Tunisian migrants to Europe is in fact quite low if compared to the roughly 600,000 refugees that found protection in European countries during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time, almost half of migrants were given safe haven in Germany and the rest were divided between Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, and Hungary.