Challenge for Europe is to retain free movement

Deluge of refugees is placing the Schengen visa-free system under immense strain

In 2015, more than a million refugees flooded into Europe after fleeing violence mostly in Syria, Libya and Afghanistan — the largest movement of people since the end of the Second World War. And now, with 2016 still in its infancy, how Europe addresses the refugees will be the defining issue on the continent for lawmakers. The challenge is to ensure that the principle of the free movement of people from the Iberian peninsula to the Nordic nations, from the Balkans to the English Channel, remains a cornerstone of the European bloc. How the Schengen agreement, that allows for open borders across most of Europe, is to be maintained, against the opposition of individual national governments, will be the greatest challenge facing lawmakers in Brussels.

Already, that Schengen agreement is under threat from Sweden. The Stockholm government, which has taken in 160,000 refugees last year, has imposed identity checks at its border with Denmark. The two nations are but eight kilometres apart across the Baltic, and many work and live in either nation, crossing the international frontier freely. That has now changed, with Sweden demanding that identification papers be carried to prevent the influx of more refugees. A temporary fence has been set up at a main station and long lines of commuters have formed in recent days as the new checks went into place. Clearly, European Union authorities need to streamline their registration process and issue identification papers as a priority. As least this will allow for spot checks to become the norm rather than full border checks.