On Tuesday, the Commission is proposing updated rules to reinforce the governance of the Schengen area. The targeted changes will bring greater EU coordination and better equip Member States to deal with emerging challenges when managing both the EU’s common external border and internal borders within the Schengen area. The update seeks to ensure that reintroducing internal border controls remains a measure of last resort. The new rules also introduce common tools to manage the external borders more efficiently in case of a public health crisis, building on the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. The instrumentalisation of migrants is also addressed in the update to the Schengen rules, as well as through a parallel proposal for measures Member States can take in the fields of asylum and return in such a situation.
The proposal to amend the Schengen Borders Code seeks to draw the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure strong coordination mechanisms are in place to deal with health threats. The updated rules will allow the Council to quickly adopt binding rules setting out temporary travel restrictions at the external borders in case of a threat to public health. Exemptions will be provided, including for essential travellers as well as Union citizens and residents. This will ensure that the travel restrictions are applied uniformly, building on the experience of recent years.
The rules also include a new Schengen safeguard mechanism to provide a common response at the internal borders in situations of threats affecting a majority of Member States, such as health threats or other threats to internal security and public policy. With this mechanism, which complements the existing mechanism for deficiencies at the external border, internal border checks in a majority of Member States could be authorised by a Council decision in case of a shared threat. Such a decision should also identify measures mitigating the negative impacts of the controls.
New rules to promote effective alternatives to internal border checks. The proposal seeks to promote the use of alternative measures to internal border controls and ensure that – where they are necessary – internal border controls remain a measure of last resort. The measures include:
- More structured procedure for any reintroduction of internal border controls, with more safeguards: As of today, any Member State deciding to reintroduce controls must assess the appropriateness of the reintroduction and its likely impact on free movement of persons. Under the new rules, they must in addition assess the impact on the border regions.
- Promoting the use of alternative measures: In line with the new EU Police Cooperation code, proposed by the Commission on 8 December 2021, the new Schengen rules promote the use of effective alternatives to internal border controls in the form of increased and more operational police checks in border regions, by clarifying that these are not equivalent to border controls.
- Limiting the impact of internal border checks on border regions: Learning the lessons of the pandemic, which impacted supply chains, Member States reintroducing controls should take measures to limit negative impacts on border regions and the internal market. This can include facilitating crossings for cross-border workers and establishing green lanes to guarantee the smooth transit of essential goods.
Addressing unauthorised movements within the Schengen area: In order to address the phenomenon of relatively small but constant numbers of unauthorised movements, the new rules will create a new procedure to address unauthorised movements during joint police operations as well as allowing Member States to revise existing or conclude new bilateral readmission agreements between themselves. This complements and should be seen in conjunction with the measures proposed under the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, in particular the binding solidarity framework.
The revised Schengen rules recognise the important role Member States at the external borders play on behalf of all Member States and the Union as a whole. They introduce new measures Member States can take to manage the EU’s external borders effectively in a situation where migrants are instrumentalised for political purposes. This includes limiting the number of border crossing points and intensifying border surveillance.
In addition, the Commission is proposing additional measures under the EU asylum and return rules to clarify how Member States can respond in such situations, in full respect of fundamental rights. This includes the possibility to extend registration deadline for asylum applications up to 4 weeks and to examine all asylum applications at the border, except for medical cases.
Source: European Commission
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