(AFP) – The European Union agreed Friday to rush through reforms to the passport-free Schengen zone by the end of the year amid growing concerns about border security in the wake of the Paris attacks.
“It’s a crucial change,” Cazeneuve told a press conference.
“The European Commission has agreed to present, by the end of the year, a plan to reform the Schengen border code to allow systematic and obligatory checks at all external borders for all travellers, including those who benefit from free movement.”
The 26-nation Schengen area is a passport-free zone, and normally only non-EU nationals have their details checked against a database for terrorism and crime when they enter, but those checks will now be extended to EU citizens.
But the Paris attacks in which 130 people died have raised troubling questions about Schengen following the revelations that two of the attackers including ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud may have avoided checks while returning from Syria.
Pending new changes to the Schengen code, a statement by the ministers said that “member states undertake to implement immediately the necessary systematic and coordinated checks at external borders.”
The planned changes are a further blow to Schengen as a pillar of European unity and freedom after an unprecedented influx of migrants has caused Germany and other member states to temporarily reintroduce internal border controls.
Britain, Ireland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus are not Schengen members.
Meanwhile the UK Daily Mail reports that European leaders have been holding behind closed door discussions to work out if a much smaller passport-free travel zone could help ease the crisis.
The countries in the new area would work together to control their new external border more tightly and impose thorough checks on asylum seekers on arrival.
Refugee camps would also be set up close to the new frontier to help manage the flows.
An EU diplomat told the Daily Mail: ‘We all recognise that Schengen is in trouble and all parties are trying to find a way to ease the burden created by the migrant crisis.
EU leaders last week admitted they were in a ‘race against time’ to stop the impending collapse of Schengen as Sweden became the latest country to slam shut its borders.
The move was seen as particularly significant as the Scandinavian country has been one of the most hospitable to migrants with the highest number per capita in any of Europe.
European Council president Donald Tusk said the travel zone was destined to fail without radical action to secure Europe’s external border
‘Let there be no doubt, the future of Schengen is at stake and time is running out,’ the former Polish prime minister said.
‘The clock is ticking, we are under pressure, we need to act fast.
The commission also called for the establishment of an EU-wide intelligence agency amid concerns over how the Paris gunmen and suicide bombers slipped under the radar despite some showing signs of radicalism.
France said it would keep the border controls it established last Friday “as long as the terrorist threat makes it necessary” and also also pushed for the EU to agree on a US-style Passenger Name Record (PNR) system, which involves collecting EU passenger data, by the end of the year. France
