* Europe uneasy over passport-free travel
* France and Germany want more say in controlling borders
* More debate over passport checks seen in coming months
By Ilona Wissenbach
LUXEMBOURG, April 26 (Reuters) – France and Germany sought
to drum up support among other European countries on Thursday
for new rules to make it easier to suspend passport-free travel
in Europe, reflecting voters’ anxiety over large-scale
migration.
At a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg, French
and German officials argued that member states needed more power
over border rules to ensure security in the Schengen zone, where
passport-free travel is allowed between 26 EU and non-EU states.
France’s interior minister, Claude Gueant, said Schengen was
allowing illegal migrants to reach deep into Europe.
“Schengen is not functioning in a satisfactory manner,”
Gueant told reporters. “There are, according to experts, some
400,000 people who have entered (Europe) in an irregular manner
… Between two and four million foreigners live clandestinely
in Schengen countries.”
The push comes as centre-right French President Nicolas
Sarkozy campaigns for the second, decisive round of presidential
elections to be held on May 6.
Sarkozy trails his centre-left rival Francois Hollande,
following a first round in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen
drew nearly a fifth of the votes. The two remaining candidates
will benefit if they can attract the second-round ballots of Le
Pen’s supporters.
Sarkozy has in the past pledged to halve immigration and
pull France out of the Schengen zone unless its external
frontiers are strengthened.
REVERSING EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
Debates over immigration heated up in Europe in the last
year when popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa
led hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge from
violence. Many attempted to cross into Europe.
The flow of illegal migrants has since slowed, but growing
support for populist rhetoric across Europe, fueled in part by
high unemployment and public spending cuts, has kept the issue
high on the public agenda.
Critics have warned anti-immigration rhetoric was
undermining one the main achievements of European integration.
“Regrettably, the winds of populism are affecting a key
achievement of European integration – the free movement of
persons within our borders,” European Council President Herman
Van Rompuy said in a speech in Bucharest on Wednesday.
Gueant and German interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich
sent a letter last week to the Danish government – which holds
the rotating EU presidency – responding to a proposal by the
European Commission last year for new Schengen rules.
Under the Commission plan, governments would have more
leeway to re-introduce border controls to counter a sudden
influx of migrants. But they would have to rely on the
executive’s opinion.
Wary of giving too much power to the Commission, France and
Germany proposed that new rules should spell out specific
circumstances in which border checks are permitted, but should
give the states final say.
“The security of our citizens is something that cannot be
transferred to the Commission,” Friedrich said in Luxembourg.
“This is a responsibility of every country, I hope there is no
doubt about that.”
Schengen involves all 27 EU countries apart from Britain,
Ireland and Cyprus. Romania and Bulgaria have complied with the
treaty and are expected to join it soon. Outside the EU, the
zone includes Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
(Additional reporting by Justyna Pawlak, Sebastian Moffett and
Marine Hass in Brussels. Writing by Justyna Pawlak.; Editing by
Sebastian Moffett and Myra MacDonald)
