MEPs Criticize European Commission for Schengen Proposals

No extra demands should be placed on the countries
aspiring to join the Schengen border-free area, the European
Parliament Rapporteur on the Schengen Evaluation Mechanism,
Carlos Coelho, said in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

He was speaking during a heated debate on European Commission
proposals to change the Schengen Border Code to the effect that
border checks may be temporarily restored in individual member
states and their membership of the Schengen area may be
suspended.

The issue sparked accusations of populism and internal political
ambitions, made against Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and political
parties in the Netherlands and Denmark.

Addressing the European Parliament, European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso said xenophobic and populist
rhetoric has become very fashionable recently, but the
Commission will not encourage it. He described the possible
restoration of internal borders in the Schengen area as a
disaster and sabotage. Even under the effective rules,
individual member states have the right to restore their
national border checks, but only under extraordinary
circumstances in order to combat drug trafficking or terrorism.
This should continue to be used only as a measure of last
resort, Barroso said. Opening a possibility to restore borders
is the surest way to ruin Schengen, he warned.

Manfred Weber MEP of the Group of the European People's Party
(Christian Democrats) said Schengen membership aspirants Romania
and Bulgaria should not be made to suffer from the nature of
the current debate, and should be admitted to the area if they
meet the requirements.

Martin Schulz (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats)
said migrants from Libya and Tunisia to Europe would not cause
a crisis if the migration pressure was distributed in a balanced
manner.

Guy Verhofstadt (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe)
said Europe seems to have dissolved in the situation between
Italy and France.

Other European lawmakers, however, said that the Schengen system
does not meet contemporary security requirements. Independent
MEPs from the Netherlands and Denmark used stronger language,
arguing that the matter pertains to national sovereignty and
individual countries should be allowed to make their own
decisions about their border controls.

Bulgaria's Andrey Kovatchev of the European People's Party
(Christian Democrats) said the current situation about Schengen
should be prevented from becoming a bad example cited in
textbooks and affecting Bulgaria and Romania. He expressed his
expectation that the two countries will be given a timeframe for
acceding to the area.

Towards the close of the debate, European Home Affairs
Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the European Commission
should not be used as a tennis ball. The Commission did not make
its proposals in response to the actions of one or two
presidents, she said. The events in the Middle East and North
Africa require Europe to put its house in order more quickly,
she said. Each migrant comes to Europe for a specific reason,
but not all of them can be admitted to the EU, Malmstrom said.

In a final statement, Eniko Gyori, Minister of State for EU
Affairs at the Foreign Ministry of Hungary (the country which
currently holds the rotating EU Presidency), said Bulgaria and
Romania have spent enormous efforts and resources and have met
big challenges on their road to Schengen. Denying their
accomplishments would be a huge mistake, she said. She called
for a correct political decision about the two aspirants.

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