European borders
IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring
Exactly one year ago, I started writing about this topic already in this paper. I grew up in Germany during times of Cold War, and military check points. 25 years residing and living in the former West Berlin surrounded by the Communist German Democratic Republic (or shortly East Germany) taught me how to survive behind borders and the Berlin Wall.
Just right now, Germany allowed to extend border controls for three more months. Wow. The European Union has ruled that Germany and a handful of other states will be allowed to keep their temporary border controls for three more months. Controls were reinstated last year to stem the flow of undocumented migrants.
Along with Austria, Denmark, Sweden and non-EU Norway, Germany reimposed partial border controls last year to stem the flow of undocumented migrants travelling through Europe. All the countries are members of the free-travel Schengen area but have been allowed by the EU to introduce border checks along the migrant route as an exceptional measure.
The five countries were scheduled to lift the border checks on November 15. However, the European Council, made up of the heads of the 28 EU member states, approved the proposal put forward by the European Commission. It said the temporary checks are allowed to be extended by “at most three months.”
After mid-February, the countries should reinstate unrestricted freedom to travel as soon as possible, said Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak. Slovakia currently holds the rotating presidency in the European Council. German Justice Minister Thomas de Maizière had advocated prolonging border controls on Germany’s border to Austria. In October, he explained that controls could only be loosened when the EU’s external border had been fully secured or when the member states had sufficient resources to accommodate all refugees in Europe.
Germany was the first EU member state to reimpose border controls along its border with Austria in September 2015. Of course, not all countries welcomed the proposal. Hungary, Slovenia and Greece voted against the extension, while Bulgaria and Cyprus abstained. The Greek government argued that its own border was sufficiently controlled, making the chance of more migrants crossing Greece into EU states minimal.
Hungary warned that prolonging the internal controls could lead to a “breakdown of the Schengen system.” Rather than internal borders, Hungarian officials said the EU should focus on its external border. The Schengen area incorporates 26 countries, including non-EU members Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. People and goods can normally travel freely without border checks between states that have signed on to the agreement. Also many Filipino tourists avail a Schengen visa and enjoy travelling in Europe.
The Austria’s defense minister has said the European Union’s migrant deal with Turkey is dead. The EU must now prepare to strengthen its external borders, he added.
Under the deal, Turkey agreed to take back Syrian migrants in Greece who did not apply for or did not receive asylum in the EU in exchange for aid and the bloc taking a set amount of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey. But since the deal went into effect, migrants who previously tried to reach richer northern European states before applying for asylum have put in applications in Greece. This has slowed down deportations back to Turkey and left Greece overburdened as applications are processed. The EU, meanwhile, has been slow to develop a refugee distribution plan as countries, mainly in central and eastern Europe, refuse to accept asylum-seekers.
Political developments in Turkey have also cast the deal into doubt. Several politicians voiced out that Turkey was “on its way to becoming a dictatorship,” a reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s consolidation of power and targeting of the opposition. The political situation in Turkey makes implementation of another part of the migrant deal problematic. Under the agreement, Turkish citizens are to obtain visa-free travel to the bloc, but EU officials have questioned whether this will happen due to draconian anti-terror laws and the deterioration of democracy in Turkey. The security situation and instability in Turkey also casts doubt over whether it is a “safe country” to return migrants.
Absent visa-free travel, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu this week suggested his country would pull out of the deal by year’s end.
Vienna has allied itself with the Visegrad group – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – against the EU’s migrant policy. Earlier this year, Austria was instrumental in the closure of the Balkan route used by migrants to travel to northern Europe after it tightened its border controls and set a ceiling on asylum applications. Also earlier this week, Austria sent 60 troops to Hungary to help build infrastructure along the border with non-EU member Serbia.
Austrians head to the polls on December 4 for a rerun presidential election that pits anti-immigration and Euro-sceptic Freedom Party (FPO) candidate Norbert Hofer against the left-leaning Alexander Van der Bellen. Migration has been a centerpiece of the campaign.
Europe without borders? This is how I called and entitled several columns of mine in the past. Not only history has written its own story… !
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