Juncker’s EU shows why we need national borders

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, who has played a leading role in dismantling national borders across Europe, has described them as “the worst invention ever”. Yet the experience of the EU shows that eradicating these barriers makes people poorer and less safe.

EU freedom-of-movement rules allowing citizens to live and work in any other member state have been an economic disaster for all concerned as Ross Clark explains on this page. But as awful as these rules are at least they allow for some border checks.

The Schengen agreement that has removed all barriers between signatory states has proved even worse. This has played into the hands of criminals and terrorists and explains why Francois Hollande reacted to the terror attacks in Paris last November by shutting France’s borders.

Then there is the ongoing migrant crisis. The failure of leaders to secure the EU’s external border has led to an unprecedented movement of people and appalling crimes against women and children in Germany, Sweden and elsewhere.

Furthermore, with nothing to stop migrants leaving the southern European states where they arrived, efforts to control and manage the flow of people were doomed. Overwhelmed by new arrivals Hungary secured its borders with razor-wire fences. Other countries duly followed suit.

Juncker may claim that borders are useless but recent history proves that they are more important than ever.