Debate: Situation in the Schengen area following the Covid- outbreak
Date: THURSDAY, 18 JUNE 2020
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

I would also say that Schengen has passed not only a celebration of 35 years, but has also just passed a major test. At no time was Schengen more important than in the last few months. All Member States took drastic measures to protect our citizens from the virus. Most Schengen countries introduced temporary internal border controls in addition to other measures restricting free movement across the European Union. Altogether, these measures helped to save tens of thousands of lives but had serious consequences for freedom of movement and a large social and economic cost. On 5 April this year, the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council presented a joint European roadmap towards lifting COVID—19 containment measures. In line with the principles established in this roadmap, the Commission presented, on 13 May, a communication setting out a coordinated, balanced and phased approach for lifting travel restrictions and controls at the internal borders. In the second stage, this also looked ahead to the ending of restrictions on non—essential travel to the EU through the external borders. Due to the improvement of the epidemiological situation, by this Monday most Member States had lifted internal border controls and restrictions, including post—travel quarantine requirements. The Commission has strongly encouraged the remaining Member States also to lift internal border controls and restrictions to free movement by air, land and water within the European Union at the same time. I expect that all internal border checks will have been lifted by the end of June before we start relaxing the external border restrictions. The Schengen rules provide Member States with a certain discretion to reintroduce border controls for two or six months at specific border sections or at all their internal borders. Member States should set up specific authorised border crossing points. Through bilateral contacts with Ministers and my regular video conferences with all the Schengen Ministers, based on the work at technical level of the COVID—19 information group (Home Affairs), we could address many issues and solve many problems, also regarding the scope of reintroduced border controls. In this emergency related to COVID—19, the Commission is of the opinion that EU Member States and Schengen states complied with the requirements of the Schengen Borders Code. Since 2015, six Schengen states have also reintroduced border controls under the Schengen Borders Code, following the recommendation of the Council, motivated by extraordinary irregular migration, secondary movements, the external border situation and terrorist threats. These controls have been prolonged and prolonged and prolonged until the end of October / mid—November this year. The Commission consistently encouraged alternatives to border controls, which may assure similar results. This concerns police checks, which, as explained in the recommendation of 12 May 2017 on proportionate police checks, can also be carried out in the border area and as such can replace non—systematic border checks. In 2017, the Commission also proposed an amendment to the Schengen governance rules with substantial reinforcement of procedural safeguards to ensure that the reintroduction of border controls is truly only a last-resort measure. As you know, the negotiations on these proposals are blocked, but recent experience with the use of border controls to address public health threats deserves further reflection. The Commission is committed to lead a process of reflection about the legal and practical steps needed to improve our response and better prepare our societies for similar emergencies. In particular, we have to be able to provide, in the case of pandemics, a coherent EU response at the internal and external borders. Currently, the EU can only intervene in the case of serious persistent threats at external borders, putting the overall functioning of the Schengen area at risk. COVID shows the need for better anticipation and for simplified or standardised procedures to be followed under the pressure of events. Decisions on the temporary reintroduction of border controls should be subject to consultation, including, where appropriate, joint meetings between the Member State concerned and the Commission. As the experience of recent months has shown, this provision of the Schengen Borders Code is rarely used in an emergency situation. The new pact on migration and asylum that I will present soon will be the occasion to launch a process to restore trust between Member States and return to a fully-functioning Schengen area. We will reflect on how to ensure coordination among the Member States during emergencies in the future and on the future of Schengen and how to make sure its legal framework and implementation are ready for new challenges.