Restoring the Borderless Schengen Area: Mission Impossible?

Summary:

The reintroduction of checks at the borders between Schengen countries in recent years has caused widespread concern. In response, the European Union launched a strategy to ‘save Schengen’, by, among other things, rewriting the rules on internal border checks, agreeing major changes to EU asylum law and taking measures in the area of further police cooperation. Amendments to the Schengen Borders Code, along with many other proposals (including the asylum law changes), have now been agreed.

This briefing analyses the Border Code amendments in the broader context, assessing whether they are likely to ‘save Schengen’ and whether they raise human rights concerns in the process. While it is hard to predict what impact these measures will have in practice, they do not amount to the sustainable restoration of a borderless Schengen zone, and there is a lack of clarity in the relationship between the revised Borders Code and the revised EU asylum laws. In light of this, the briefing ends with some recommendations on how to protect the principle of avoiding internal border controls, which is not only a legal issue but of great political and economic relevance to the EU as a whole. One of these recommendations is the use of benchmarks for when reintroduced internal border controls should be lifted again.

• Alternative Source 1

EU Law Analysis, 08/05/2024: Restoring the Borderless Schengen Area: Mission Impossible? Summary of a new report https://eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2024/05/restoring-borderless-schengen-area.html

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