Honourable Members,
The Schengen Area, as an area of free movement without internal borders is one of the main achievements of the European Union.
This Commission is doing everything in its power to make sure that we preserve it, in accordance with the steps set out in our Back to Schengen Roadmap.
Our objective is to return to a normal functioning of the Schengen area with no internal border controls as soon as possible, and within six months at the latest.
Because the costs of internal border controls are already visible. We see transporters complain about increasing delays and cost.
We see the tourism industry in some Member States suffer. And this is only a fraction of what would happen if border controls were re-established systematically.
But the political cost of non-Schengen would be much more important still: it would be a highly symbolic reversal of a major achievement of European integration.
This is why we need to take coordinated action at European level, making use of the tools that the same Schengen Borders Code provides to us, so as to allow Member states do what is necessary in the current circumstances while preserving Schengen as a whole.
This is what our proposal under Article 29 Schengen Border Code is meant to achieve.
Let me first acknowledge that Greece has made significant progress in the last few months.
However, not all deficiencies identified in the management of external border control have been remedied.
This concerns in particular: sea border surveillance, reception capacities and registration in the mainland of the migrants who had not been registered upon arrival in the islands.
Despite the reduction in the flows due to our cooperation with Turkey, the sustainability of this reduction still has to be confirmed.
Moreover, a number of these unregistered migrants remain in Greece, or in other countries of the Western Balkans.
They may seek to move irregularly to other Member States.
In other words, the reasons that led several States to unilaterally introduce temporary border controls still exist.
The persistent threat of secondary movements puts at risk the overall functioning of the Schengen area.
Therefore a coherent, coordinated and sustainable common approach to temporary internal border control, as foreseen in Article 29 of the Schengen Borders Code, is needed at EU level.
Article 29 is a tool to safeguard the functioning of the whole Schengen area and it is the first time that the Commission makes use of it.
As a result, we proposed that the Council recommends that Austria, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway maintain the internal border controls at specific border crossing points for up to six months.
Controls will be regularly reviewed by the Schengen States concerned and adjusted to the level of the security threat addressed.
The States concerned will also report to the Commission every 2 months.
Let me be clear about a few things: Article 29 is not a sanction against a Member State nor a means to expel it from the Schengen area.
We do not propose the introduction of border controls at the Schengen borders of Greece, namely at airports and ports.
In addition, we clearly state that the controls introduced should be proportionate and limited to what is strictly necessary to respond to the serious threat and safeguard public policy and internal security.
They should impede as little as possible the border crossing for the general public.
The Commission will continuously monitor the situation and, after 4 months, will report to this Parliament and the Council on the possible need to adapt the application of its initial recommendation.
The principles of necessity and proportionality are the guiding principles for this and any future decision.
Let me therefore reiterate that our proposal is an exceptional temporary measure to ultimately allow for the safeguarding and return to a normal functioning Schengen area as soon as possible.
It is expected that, by the end of the 6 months period the latest, the implementation of other tools will allow lifting all internal border controls and returning to a normally functioning Schengen.
I refer in particular: to the European Coast and Border Guard, to the further sustained implementation of the EU-Turkey statement, the full application of EU asylum rules as well as a swift agreement by the co-legislators on the recently presented proposals reforming parts of the Common European Asylum System, in particular the Dublin system.
We look forward to the Council adopting the proposed recommendations tomorrow.