Terror threatens Europe’s borderless Schengen Area
Saving the Schengen Area— the free-movement zone at the core of the idea of European integration — will become increasingly challenging, as the migrant crisis and the terrorist attacks in Paris expose the fragility of a borderless Europe.
Analysts have long debated the viability of the Schengen agreement, which allows not only goods and people to pass freely once they enter the 26-member zone, but also arms and radical jihadists. The agreement in theory is supposed to balance a lack of internal border controls with stricter external border controls; but it doesn’t take into account the lack of co-ordination around the sharing of intelligence, and each country’s different approach toward foreign policy and security.
“The problem with the EU is it is caught between being a large group of sovereign nation states doing their own thing, and an integrated supranational entity. Schengen is testing the tensions between those two positions,” said Jim Shields, s professor of French politics at Aston University in the U.K.
One of the Islamic State terrorists involved in Friday’s attack, which left 129 people dead, entered Europe as a Syrian refugee, travelling through Greece, Serbia and Macedonia, hidden in the mass exodus of people seeking a safe haven from war. The mastermind behind the attack was a Belgian national, raising concerns about the movement of terrorists inside a visa-less Europe.
“France can only work within France, while jihadis can move freely,” commented Loretta Napoleoni, London-based author of The Islamist Phoenix, in an interview with CBC Radio Monday.
President François Hollande tight- ened France’s borders Friday, and immediately declared a state of emergency. He is also expected to lobby member countries, especially Belgium, to institute border controls at a meeting in Brussels on Friday, reported London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, and to urge for greater use of an information system that cross-references border identity checks with a vast database of known criminals, stolen vehicles, passports and other security data.
Under the Schengen agreement countries may temporarily reinstate border controls, as Denmark, Germany, Austria and Sweden have already done in an effort to regulate the chaotic flow of 700,000 migrants who have arrived in Europe so far this year. But it forbids permanent checks on passports.
The security implications of Friday’s atrocities raise questions about the long-term sustainability of the zone. “The attacks could spell the end of the original idea of the more idealistic vision of a borderless Europe,” said Wesley Wark, a security expert at the University of Ottawa.
There is no Europe-wide approach to border regulation, with some countries much better equipped than others.
The executive director of Frontex, the European Union’s border management agency, called for greater co-ordination of border control at a recent European Migration Network Conference in Luxembourg.
“Despite a common legal framework, the EU is not able to send border guards everywhere they are needed,” said Fabrice Leggeri.
Turkish officials did share intelligence with France about one of the attackers who died Friday, reflecting the need for governments to improve how the share intelligence to prevent terrorism.