The European Commission presents its reform project for the Schengen borderless area

Even before the French presidency of the European Union (EU), which will start on 1er January, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, will see one of his main wishes fulfilled: the European Commission was to detail Tuesday, December 14, in the Parliament of Strasbourg, a proposal for reform of the area without a Schengen passport.

Successively undermined by the terrorist attacks that targeted the continent, the migration crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the principle of free movement has gradually given way to the themes of closure, then border surveillance, internal as external. And recent episodes which saw migrants manipulated by the Belarusian dictatorship and directed to the Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian borders have stirred European diplomacy a little more, facing a new type of “hybrid” threat.

Read our pedago: Migrant crisis: what is happening on the border between Poland and Belarus?

The Commission has therefore accelerated the pace and drawn up a proposal which was to be clarified on Tuesday by Vice-President Margaritis Schinas and Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. According to information obtained by The world, the text largely corresponds to the wishes of Paris, where the Head of State said, last week, his desire for a Union which “Know how to protect your borders” in the face of migratory crises, that the subject be the subject of a ” political steering ” through regular ministerial meetings and that there are solidarity support mechanisms in the event of a crisis at the border of a member country.

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Define “a common response mechanism”

The proposal mentions the possibility, for a country, of refusing the entry of migrants into its territory and of returning them directly to a neighboring state if it exists. “A clear indication” that they come directly from it. One way of trying to settle the still unresolved question of “secondary movements”: even if the Dublin regulation stipulates that a person must apply for asylum in the state through which he entered the EU, many introduce an application in several countries or pass through others, without seeking asylum there. And the Dublin reform, demanded by the countries of first entry, is still in limbo, like the “global pact” for migration tabled in September 2020 by the Commission.

Another chapter of the text presented on Tuesday: if an instrumentalisation of migration such as that practiced by the Belarusian dictatorship occurs again and affects several member countries, it would be a question of defining “A mechanism for common responses”, advocates the Commission. Clearly, it would be advisable to avoid a single rider like the one in which Poland has engaged, with dramatic, even inhuman consequences, and a sort of legalization of pushbacks. A “Joint assessment” decided by the Council should allow action that is more concerted, more measured and more in line with the values ​​advocated by the Union.

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