Debate: Annual Report on the functioning of the Schengen area
Date: TUESDAY, 6 JULY 2021
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

Thirty percent of our citizens live in a border area, 1.7 million people live in one Schengen country and work in another, and 3.5 million people cross internal borders every day. Schengen is a unique area of freedom, security and justice. We will need Schengen to rebuild our economies. There’s no going back to Schengen, we can only go forward.  I wish to thank Tanja Fajon very much for telling me that the European Parliament is one of my important allies to achieve this goal. That is also shown in the report, Tanja Fajon, that you presented today and I warmly thank you for this report. Together, we must shape the future of Schengen. That is why, last year, President von der Leyen, speaking before this House, announced a new strategy for the future of Schengen, which we presented last month, building on two high—level political meetings on the Schengen Forum we organised since last November, with crucial input from Members of the European Parliament.  The Commission’s Schengen strategy is based on the idea that to move freely inside the Schengen Area we must ensure the security of our citizens. We must prioritise three essential things.  First, we must secure our external borders. To do that, we must implement the decisions we’ve already taken. Frontex’s new standing corps is being set up as we speak. It will support Member States at the most vulnerable places along our borders, benefiting the whole Schengen Area. We are building the most advanced external border management system in the world by launching the entry—exit system and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) next year and achieving full interoperability by 2023. We have state—of—the—art information systems. It’s essential to link them up to stop criminals and terrorists and to keep track of third-country nationals.  Second, besides protecting our borders, we must protect our citizens inside our borders. That is why we have launched strategies, initiatives and proposals to fight the trafficking of drugs, guns and human beings, to fight child sexual abuse, terrorism and organised crime. We’ve launched proposals to improve police cooperation and law enforcement information exchange to boost the mandate of Europol. By the end of this year, we will present a police cooperation code to build permanent police partnerships.  Equally, we need to better manage migration. We have started to make good progress with the pact, with the adoption of the blue card and the political endorsement last week of the EU asylum agency. We need to continue progress step by step. Better managed migration will also make Schengen stronger.  Third, we must together take responsibility for the governance of the Schengen Area. The Schengen Forum will meet once a year to discuss key political decisions at high political level, supported by an annual state of Schengen report that the Commission will present later this year with the new Schengen scoreboard to keep track of progress. This will support our common work in the Schengen Forum. We have also proposed a stronger Schengen evaluation and monitoring mechanism to detect and solve problems sooner, as called for by this Parliament.  I’m confident that we can make very swift progress on this file, which is essential for mutual trust between Member States, trust we need to have in the Schengen Area. Later this year, the Commission will present a targeted revision of the new Schengen Borders Code to ensure that, when several Member States face a crisis, we have a response that is rapid, coordinated and European, and that internal border checks remain measures of last resort.  Together, we have learned the lessons of past crises. Since 2015, Schengen has faced challenges – migration, terrorism and, most recently, the pandemic – causing Member States to introduce internal border checks. Secondary movements are a real issue, but internal border checks have not solved the problem and will not help us to manage migration. Our new Pact on Migration and Asylum is a much better instrument to manage migration.  Criminals and terrorists are a real threat, but internal border checks alone are not what will stop criminals and terrorists. We can only stop them by joining forces with better police cooperation and state—of—the—art ICT systems. The virus is a real danger, but internal border checks have not, and will not, stop the virus. Only coordinated action will help us to get out of this crisis.  So let us now move forward on Schengen together. Let the start of summer, the summer of 2021, this summer of freedom, inspire us to fully restore freedom of movement and to get Schengen ready for the future so our children can also work, study and travel all over Europe, when they like and wherever they like. And, to complete the Schengen Area, it’s time for Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia to take their place.