The Government of Pedro Sánchez is left alone in considering that the draft undermines the free movement of citizens
The interior ministers of the European Union agreed this Friday on the basis of their negotiating position with the European Parliament for the reform of the Schengen Code, although Spain did not support the drafting of the text, considering that it puts the principles of the space at risk. freedom of movement by not limiting the reintroduction of internal controls to exceptional situations.
The European Commission proposed last December to review the rules of the Schengen Borders Code to speed up the coordinated closure of both internal and external borders in cases of health crises or migratory pressure that they consider put security in the EU at risk. He also defended the need to clarify the assumptions and deadlines for reintroducing internal controls, which the code limits to very precise and temporary situations, given that there are at least five countries that have maintained these controls constantly since 2015, including France and Germany, no consequences.
In this context, a “vast majority” of countries have supported the consensus text that would allow negotiations to begin with the European Parliament but that neither Spain nor other countries such as Poland, Hungary and Slovenia like, according to European sources.
In the case of Spain, Minister Fernando Grande-Markaska lamented in the debate with his partners that the possibility of introducing this reinforced surveillance is no longer an option of last resort and exceptional and is now considered an “equally valid” option with the position agreed to Twenty-seven. “It is not by undermining the essence of Schengen that we will strengthen our security, unless it is thought that not all Member States are the same,” Grande-Marlaska defended before her European colleagues, according to a statement released by the Ministry at the end of the European meeting.
Spain defends that freedom of movement and the absence of border controls are two elements “absolutely compatible with security” and regrets that the bloc is moving towards a reform that makes these controls “not exceptional”.
The Court of Justice of the European Union already warned in a ruling from last April that the existence of a serious threat to public order only allows a Member State to close its internal border for a maximum period of six months and that any extension that exceeds that period contravenes the Schengen Borders Code.
Deblocking the migration pact
On the other hand, the EU interior ministers also supported with a “large majority”, in the words of the rotating presidency held by France, positions on the reform of the migration and common asylum policy that could “unblock” the negotiation of the Migration Pact, parked for years due to the strong differences between the Member States.
One of the keys has been the support of a broad group of countries for a political declaration that defines “mandatory solidarity” in terms of receiving refugees arriving in the countries on the front line of entry to the EU, with a wording that provides that partners who want to assume part of the relocation of people compensate for this lack of support by paying funds or sending additional means to manage the arrival of migrants rescued on the high seas.
A dozen countries have already committed to receiving migrants within the framework of this voluntary mechanism, including France and Germany, but the European Commission hopes to have more countries when it launches the platform with which this initiative will be coordinated before it ends June. In the balance to unblock the reform, the concession of the countries of southern Europe has also played a role in breaking up the negotiation of the Pact, instead of approaching it as a block as they wanted at the outset, and closing the position of the Twenty-seven regarding two key pieces but easier to negotiate: the regulation on the common biometric database (Eurodac) and the so-called ‘screening’ to register and be able to reject migrants who represent a threat to the security of the EU at the external border.
Topics
European Commission, Court of Justice of the European Union, European Union (EU), Germany, Slovenia, Spain, France, Hungary, Poland, Government of Pedro Sánchez, Irregular immigration, Citizen Security Law 2015 (Gag Law)
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