Pedro Sánchez’s government is left alone if it believes the design undermines the free movement of citizens
The European Union’s interior ministers agreed with the European Parliament this Friday on the basis of their negotiating position on the reform of the Schengen Code, although Spain did not support the drafting of the text, since it reintroducing internal controls should not be limited to exceptional situations.
The European Commission proposed last December to revise the rules of the Schengen Borders Code to accelerate the coordinated closure of both internal and external borders in the event of health crises or migratory pressures that it believes endanger security in the EU. He also defended the need to clarify the assumptions and deadlines for the reintroduction of internal controls, which the code limits to very precise and temporary situations, as there are at least five countries that have consistently enforced these controls 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 start with the European Parliament, but which, according to European sources, neither Spain nor other countries such as Poland, Hungary and Slovenia are comfortable with.
In the case of Spain, in the debate with his partners, Minister Fernando Grande-Markaska regretted that the possibility of introducing this enhanced surveillance is no longer a last resort and exceptional and is now considered an “equally valid” option with the agreed position to twenty-seven. “It is not by undermining the very essence of Schengen that we will strengthen our security, unless it is believed that not all Member States are the same,” Grande-Marlaska defended to her European colleagues, according to a statement released by the Ministry of the End of the European Union. meeting.
Spain defends that freedom of movement and the absence of border controls are two elements that are “absolutely compatible with security” and regrets that the bloc is moving towards reform that makes these controls “not exceptional”.
The Court of Justice of the European Union already warned in a ruling of April last year that the existence of a serious threat to public policy only allows a Member State to close its internal borders for a maximum period of six months and that any extension crossing that border for a period of time is in violation of the Schengen Borders Code.
On the other hand, EU interior ministers also supported by a “great majority”, in the words of France’s rotating presidency, positions on the reform of migration and common asylum policies that could facilitate the negotiations on migration ” unblock” Pact, parked for years because of the stark differences between Member States.
One of the keys has been the support of a broad group of countries for a political declaration defining “mandatory solidarity” in terms of the reception of refugees arriving in the countries on the front lines of entry into the EU, with wording stating that partners wanting to take on some of the relocation of people make up for this lack of support by paying funds or sending additional resources to manage the arrival of migrants rescued on the high seas.
A dozen countries have already committed to hosting migrants under this voluntary mechanism, including France and Germany, but the European Commission hopes to have more countries when it launches the platform that will coordinate this initiative before the end of June . In the balance to unblock the reform, the concession of the countries of southern Europe has also played a role in breaking off the negotiations on the pact, rather than approaching it as a blockade from the start, and de Twenty-seven on two important parts, but easier to negotiate: the regulation on the Common Biometric Database (Eurodac) and the so-called ‘screening’ to register and refuse migrants who pose a threat to the security of the EU at the outer border.
Source: La Verdad
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