New Rules Would Require Passports to Travel Within Europe
Documents examined by the AP suggest a decades-old policy of borderless travel within Europe is coming to an end as the participating countries grapple with the influx of Middle Eastern refugees fleeing terrorism in their home countries.
The new policy, which has not yet been implemented, would impose passport control centers at borders across the EU for the next two years in an apparent attempt to stem the flow of refugees traveling across Europe.
According to the AP, the EU is planning to declare that Greece—the entry point for about 2,000 refugees each day—has failed to sufficiently protect its border. Such a declaration would trigger an emergency provision that allows the other 25 countries that have abolished passport travel to institute border controls for as many as two years.
But even though reports indicated Greece had been making progress on its border control, the EU’s assessments became “notably more negative” after states like Germany indicated an interest in extending emergency border controls which, under EU rules, max out at six months. Notes the AP:
With asylum-seekers still coming at a pace ten times that of January 2015, European countries are reluctant to dismantle their emergency border controls. And if they keep them in place without authorization, EU officials fear the entire concept of the open-travel zone could be brought down.
Germany’s emergency border checks expire in May, as do several other countries’, including France, Austria, Denmark and Norway. In the meantime, some countries are looking at alternative measures, like taking all items of value from the refugees before allowing them to enter.
