Terror shatters Europe’s open border dream
WHEN MEHDI Nemmouche walked into the Jewish Museum in Brussels last May and opened fire, he did more than kill four people — including two Israeli citizens. He refocused an intense debate about the open borders within the European Union.
Nemmouche, a French citizen, had only recently returned from Syria, where he had been fighting with jihadi groups. He had a violent past and had served five years in a French prison, where he was apparently radicalised. Despite this background, he was able to cross freely from France into Belgium without any border checks.
The reason for this, of course, is the Schengen Agreement.
First enacted in 1985, later modified and expanded, Schengen became a reality in 1995 in a core group of five countries, including France and Belgium.
Since then, it has become an essential part of the harmonisation of the European economy. The timeconsuming and economically costly roadside border checks between member states have completely disap- peared. Lorries with manufactured goods move swiftly from the Iberian Peninsula to Germany, or from France across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and into Poland without ever having to stop. Tourists, too enjoy the pleasure of motoring from north to south and east to west without hassle.
Now, with jihadism presenting a new security challenge, some in Europe are saying that it is time to rethink Schengen. ties in Europe alerted.
Others who study the problem of terrorism inside Europe’s open borders are more sanguine about the situation than Mr de Maiziere. Raffaello Pantucci, of the Royal United Services Institute, notes that terrorism was part of the European scene when Schengen was first being implemented. The IRA and ETA, the Basque separatist group, moved around freely even when the borders were closed. Built into Schengen is the right of national security forces to close borders and perform checks if they have a suspicion about terrorist activity. The problem today, says Mr Pantucci, is “the scale and flow of terrorists is novel. You have countries dealing with the jihadi problem who have not dealt with it before.”
The real problem, in his view, isn’t Schengen, it is that “we don’t have common European police, laws and courts”. This means that each
coun-