Schengen to incorporate Nordic area

Date: 11/04/1996

By Thomas Klau

THE EU signatories to the Schengen Convention have decided to open up their agreement on the abolition of border controls to all five members of the Nordic Passport Union, even though there is little prospect of Norway and Iceland joining the EU in the foreseeable future.

At a ministerial meeting in The Hague to be held next Thursday (18 April), the ten Schengen countries are set to grant Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland observer status - the first step towards full participation in the Schengen cooperation mechanism.

Diplomats say that during the morning session, the ten Schengen ministers will agree to invite their five Nordic colleagues to join them in their afternoon deliberations. No further formal step is needed.

Observer status gives a country the right to attend Schengen group deliberations without officially participating in them, and is seen as a transitional arrangement facilitating membership negotiations and the subsequent full integration of applicant countries into the group.

Full membership talks with Denmark, Sweden and Finland are scheduled to begin soon after the April meeting.

Meanwhile, Norway and Iceland are to be granted a newly-created association status reflecting both countries' (explicit or implicit) rejection of Union membership. This status will be comprehensive enough to allow Oslo and Reykjavik to participate in all key Schengen arrangements, such as the abolition of systematic internal border controls, a common visa policy and close cooperation in police matters.

In a step which EU members are determined will not serve as a precedent, the Schengen space is therefore to be opened to non-EU members for the first time.

This major concession - initially ruled out by several EU members after the Norwegians rejected Union membership in 1994 - is a result of the Nordic countries' determination to hold on to the 'passport union' which has bound the five nations together in a single free-travel zone since 1957.

It also serves as further evidence that both Iceland and Norway are set to become ever more integrated into EU policies despite their persistent reluctance to join the Union.

Participation in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) and the Schengen Convention will, in effect, substantially curtail both countries' sovereignty in many commercial and internal affairs matters, while leaving their governments without a formal seat at the EU negotiating table.

Because of the time needed for negotiations and the subsequent ratification process, the planned extension of the Schengen space to include Finland and all of Scandinavia will probably not come into effect before 1998. However, diplomats expect talks to proceed fairly smoothly, as cooperation within the 39-year-old 'passport union' - while less wide-ranging than that foreseen in the Schengen Convention - has already fostered a tradition of cooperation on internal affairs matters between its five members.

Once the ratification process is completed and the four Schengen signatories who have not yet fully implemented the convention have done so, the Schengen region will - as was the case before the latest round of enlargement - include all the EU's continental members, with only the UK and Ireland standing outside.

Given the problems posed by the measures needed to combat terrorism in Northern Ireland, diplomats are convinced a solution for these two countries will not be found unless London drops its fundamental opposition to the abolition of systematic border passport controls on passengers travelling between EU member states.

Until now, it has shown no sign of doing so, setting the stage for a tough battle over plans drawn up by Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti for new EU laws designed to create a truly border-free Europe encompassing all member states.

As he leads the Commission's fight to achieve the goal of ensuring the free movement of people throughout the Union, Monti will have to keep one eye firmly on the European Parliament. Some MEPs have already attacked the Commissioner's approach as over-timid and unrealistic, and have suggested taking the unusual step of asking the Commission to withdraw its proposals and replace them with a “more serious” initiative.

They say that under the Commission's current approach, the abolition of passport controls at all the EU's internal borders stands no chance of being implemented before the turn of the century.

The University of Amsterdam, meanwhile, has produced a study highlighting ambiguous formulations in the Schengen Convention which, according to the researchers, could result in member states adopting conflicting policies in order to enforce the agreement.

This problem, they suggest, will be particularly acute in the field of cross-border police cooperation, where differing national definitions of terms such as 'custody' and different degrees of legal protection afforded to persons under arrest could lead to legal confusion.

But officials are quick to discount such suggestions. They argue that the majority of the problems highlighted in the report are more academic than real, and might only create serious difficulties once cross-border police interventions increase far beyond their present limited number.