An Assessment of the Commission’s 2011 Schengen Governance Package: Preventing abuse by EU member states of freedom of movement? CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 47, 26 March 2012

The Schengen system has been at the centre of sharp controversy throughout 2011 and the early months of 2012 arising from attempts by several member state governments to challenge the right to the free movement of persons and the abolition of internal border checks. The speech delivered by Nicolas Sarkozy early this month (March 2012), as part of the French presidential campaign, in which he threatened to suspend France’s participation in Schengen illustrates this phenomenon. This paper examines the European Commission’s response to the Schengen controversies, namely the Schengen Goverance Package published in September 2011 and currently under negotiation in Council and the European Parliament. It assesses the scope and added value of the Package’s two new legislative proposals (a new Schengen evaluation mechanism and revised rules for restating internal border checks) by looking at the origins and features of the debate surrounding liberty of circulation in the Schengen area. The paper addresses the following questions: first, are these new rules necessary and appropriate to effectively respond to unlawful security derogations and restrictions to liberty of circulation? Second, would their adoption provide an effective response to current and future political tensions and national governments’ policies against free movement, such as those evidenced in 2011 and 2012 and for them to expand to other member states? And finally, is the Schengen Governance Package well designed to safeguard the free movement of persons, or is it rather oriented towards further strengthening the security apparatus of Schengen

Border guards as an alien police: usages of the Schengen Agreement in France

The creation of a common European space following the integration of the Schengen Agreement into the acquis communautaires through the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, and the subsequent treaties and summits, lead Member States to consider border control as a common issue. One could have thought that the lifting of the internal borders within the Schengen space would have threatened the border guard corps at the national level. This is not the case. I will show that, thanks to a change in the model of French border guards, their power and influence have in fact risen in the second part of the 1990’s. In response to the fear of a drastic cut in the workforce, French border guards mobilize to define a new model of border guard: the alien police model, which aimed at fighting against illegal immigration.administrative adaptation; Europeanization; France; free movement; immigration policy; national parliaments; policy analysis; public administration; Schengen

Schengen area in times of immigration crisis

Przedmiotem rozważań niniejszego artykułu są zagadnienia związane z funkcjonowaniem strefy Schengen w czasie kryzysu imigracyjnego, jaki dotknął Europę w 2015 roku i w pierwszej połowie 2016 roku. W rozważaniach odniesiono się do genezy, istoty i znaczenia obszaru Schengen w procesie integrowania się kontynentu europejskiego. Przeanalizowano zjawisko niekontrolowanego wzrostu imigrantów przybywających do Europy pod względem ilościowym, uwzględniając jego skutki i znaczenie dla istnienia obszaru Schengen. Zwrócono uwagę na decyzje państw strefy Schengen, które w obawie przed narastającą falą imigrantów wprowadzały tymczasowe kontrole na granicach. Uwzględniono inicjatywy podejmowane przez państwa europejskie w celu rozwiązana kryzysu imigracyjnego, ale i wyeksponowano brak solidarności w tych działaniach. W konkluzji autorka stwierdza, iż w najbliższym czasie strefa Schengen się nie rozpadnie, ale żeby przetrwała musi się zaadoptować do nowych okoliczności za pomocą reform i wzmocnić kontrole na granicach zewnętrznych.The subject of the consideration in this article are issues related to the functioning of the Schengen area in times of the 2015/2016 immigration crisis in Europe. The Author of this article firstly referred to the origins of the crisis, the role of the Schengen area in the process of integrating the European continent, and then analyzed the phenomenon of uncontrolled growth of immigrants coming to Europe, taking into account decisions, initiatives and activities of certain Schengen area countries and the impact of these actions on running of the Schengen zone. In conclusion, the author stated  that in times of serious difficulties, the Schengen area would probably survive, but it has to undertake certain steps (reforms, strengthening of the external border controls) helping to adapt to the new circumstances

UK v. EU: A Continuous Test Match

This Essay seeks to expose the complexity of the relationship between the United Kingdom (and Ireland, but the main focus will be the UK) and the European Union that resulted from the concessions made to the UK when the treaties of Amsterdam and Lisbon were negotiated: a right not to participate in the adoption and application of EU legislative measures in the field of Justice and Home Affairs ( JHA ), and the right to decide on a case-by-case basis to opt into such measures, following procedures reminiscent of the sophisticated rules of cricket. These concessions were made to allow the UK to preserve in particular the right to maintain controls on persons at all its borders and to conduct its own immigration policies. Its discretion to opt in or opt out has been somewhat restricted when it concerns measures belonging to or developing the Schengen acquis. But that has not stopped the UK from displaying its interest in participating in some parts of the Schengen acquis, so far mainly covering aspects of cross-border cooperation in areas of law enforcement and criminal justice.This Essay presents the views of an optimist as to the possible prospects of a further UK participation-in the longer run-in other parts of the Schengen acquis, such as the EU\u27s external border policy, common visa policy or expulsion policy, or the rules on free movement rights for legally residing third-country nationals

Love thy neighbour? Coronavirus politics and their impact on EU freedoms and rule of law in the Schengen Area. CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security in Europe No. 2020-04, April 2020

Restrictions on international and intra-EU traffic of persons have been at the heart of the political responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Border controls and suspensions of entry and exist have been presented as key policy priorities to prevent the spread of the virus in the EU. These measures pose however fundamental questions as to the raison d’être of the Union, and the foundations of the Single Market, the Schengen system and European citizenship. They are also profoundly intrusive regarding the fundamental rights of individuals and in many cases derogate domestic and EU rule of law checks and balances over executive decisions. This Paper examines the legality of cross-border mobility restrictions introduced in the name of COVID-19. It provides an in-depth typology and comprehensive assessment of measures including the reintroduction of internal border controls, restrictions of specific international traffic modes and intra-EU and international ‘travel bans’. Many of these have been adopted in combination with declarations of a ‘state of emergency’

TRENDS IN MIGRATION TO IRELAND OF NATIONALS OF COUNTRIES WITH VISA LIBERALISATION AGREEMENTS WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION. ESRI SURVEY AND STATISTICAL REPORT SERIES, August 2019

The synthesis report presents an analysis of the impact in terms of direct and indirect benefits, as well as challenges. Tourism is considered a direct benefit, as tourism is one of the purposes of a short-stay visa. There was a rise in tourists from the visa-free countries after visa liberalisation across the EU Member States, although the numbers were modest in the context of overall tourism numbers to the EU. Residence permits for work or study reasons were considered an indirect benefit – as these are not purposes of stay for a short-stay Schengen visa, though a short stay could ultimately influence a longer stay for one of these reasons. The synthesised findings show that the number of residence permits issued to nationals of the visa-free countries more than doubled since 2008, and most of these were issued for employment reasons. Therefore, the report suggests that visa liberalisation could be a facilitator to labour market access. However, a similar link was not found for student migration or for entrepreneurship (EMN, 2019)

Romania and Bulgaria have not been admitted to the Schengen Agreement because of the deep seated anxiety of the treaty’s current members about the regime’s future

Where will the Schengen Agreement be ten years from now? Ruben Zaiotti explores why its signatories are currently hesitant to admit Romania and Bulgaria. He argues that in the wake of the financial and economic crisis the Romanian and Bulgarian governments can only hope that Schengen club’s chronic anxiety can be channelled against someone else

MIGRATION PANORAMA. Schengen in the spotlight: a Europe with or without borders? APRIL 2016 (First edition)

The first edition of this new multi-authored publication entitled ‘Migration Panorama’ focuses on the consequences of the refugee and migration crisis on the Schengen area and the concept of a borderless union. Several external and EPC authors have contributed to building a comprehensive picture on the manifold challenges and possible consequences of maintaining and/or returning to internal border controls among Schengen countries. How does a signatory of the Schengen agreement see the current developments? What would be the impact of the reintroduction of physical borders on Europe’s digital economy? In what way do the V4 countries envisage to solve the ‘Schengen crisis’? How dangerous are the empty threats to expel Greece out of the Schengen area? What is the symbolic meaning of the Belgian border controls following the French decision to dismantle parts of the Calais ‘jungle’? Is saving Schengen only a question of national sovereignty or a matter of shared European responsibility? All these questions and many others are tackled in this first issue of the ‘Migration Panorama’ produced by EPC’ s Migration and Diversity Programme