EU executive considers reimposing border controls

[alp227]

Source: Reuters

The European Union executive is considering allowing member states to reinstate some border controls, its president has said, responding to demands for more national power to stem immigration.

The announcement on Sunday lent momentum to a campaign by France and Italy to reimpose some of the border checks, abolished in 1995 under the Schengen agreement, as they grapple with an influx of migrants fleeing political upheaval in north Africa.

In a letter to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission, said it would be possible to permit countries to reintroduce limited controls.

"The temporary restoration of borders is one of the possibilities, provided this is subject to specific and clearly defined criteria, that could be an element to strengthen the governance of the Schengen agreement," Barroso wrote.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/01/eu-considers-reimposing-border-controls

[pampango]

1. Could be an interesting process. Apparently need action by all 27 EU countries and the EU parliament

"The proposals could become law as soon as they are agreed by the EU's 27 member states and the bloc's parliament, a process that could be concluded in months but could also easily drag on for more than a year."

[Edweird]

4. "Illegal immigrants" France and Italy are fighting over illegal immigrants.

I guess you can't use that BS talking point anymore.

[pampango]

11. How are they "illegal" if Italy gave them legal residence and Schengen

gives legal residents freedom to travel within Europe? One can argue that Italy should not have given the immigrants legal residency or that so many European countries should not have signed up with Schengen, but both have actually happened.

Conservative parties govern Italy (Berlusconi) and France (Sarkozy). Both has a history of using anti-immigrant sentiment as part of their political strategies to win votes from conservative voters. It's almost like this is a kabuki dance between anti-immigrant politicians in Italy and France. Berlusconi grants legal residence to a bunch of Muslim refugees, so they can then travel to France where Sarkozy has made a career of stoking, then taking advantage of, fear of Muslim immigrants. Sarkozy can then "protect" France from these new immigrants, send the packing, and push for more border controls which right wingers (including Berlusconi) want in Europe.

It is the conservative parties in Europe, particularly those on the far-right like the National Front (France) and the Northern League (Italy), that are pushing for reinstating intra-Europe border controls (weakening or eliminating Schengen). Such proposals don't come from socialist or left wing political parties who adhere to the idea that Europeans benefit from relatively open borders with each other that have resulted in decades of (post-WWII) peace, prosperity, freedom of movement, and progressive governance with equitable distributions of income, national health care, strong social safety nets, widespread and effective unions, etc.

Of course, conservative parties in Europe continue to battle with liberal ones to reinstate border controls, cut social programs, weaken unions and skew income distribution more in favor of the wealthy. Progressives have achieved a lot in Europe over the decades but conservatives will never stop fighting to roll back that progress.

[iandhr]

6. the UK has opted out of Schengen maybe

others can opt out.

[AndyTiedye]

8. The UK isn't in the EU

[iandhr]

9. yes the are

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_state_of_the_European_Union

[AndyTiedye]

10. I Stand Corrected

Though the UK does not use the Euro and has no plans to do so, and they have always retained border controls (oddly, except for between N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland).

[Odin2005]

2. The French are not gonna wait that long, bad domestic politics.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Neither will some of the other countries.

.

[Edweird]

5. A nation's government has to act in the best interests of it's citizens.

Regulating immigration is part of that.

[orangeapple]

7. racism

Corky Siemaszko, Daily News (New York), March 7, 2011

"Libyan leader Moammer Khadafy played the race card Monday, warning Europe that if he falls they will be deluged by hordes of illegal African immigrants.

“There are millions of blacks who could come to the Mediterranean to cross to France and Italy, and Libya plays a role in security in the Mediterranean,” he told the France 24 television station.

“Libya may become the Somalia of North Africa, of the Mediterranean,” Khadafy’s son, Seif, added. “You will see the pirates in Sicily, in Crete, in Lampedusa. You will see millions of illegal immigrants. The terror will be next door.”