The European Parliament’s left-wing majority has adopted the Schengen reform proposal which explicitly aims to ensure member states cannot reinstate internal borders within the Schengen Area except “as a last resort.”
In a plenary vote on Thursday, September 5th, the Left defeated the conservative parties’ challenge of the package, which will restrict member states’ ability to protect their borders and therefore violate their fundamental sovereignty.
As we reported on Monday, the two conservative parties (ECR and ID) submitted a motion to contest the Parliament’s mandate for interinstitutional negotiations on the Schengen Code revision which was initially adopted at the committee level and was to be sent straight to the trilogues without a larger vote in the plenary.
Gathering enough support, the conservatives were able to trigger that vote, hoping to send the package back to the drawing board, giving them a chance to table further amendments that would provide more flexibility to those countries wanting to protect their borders from illegal migration or cross-border criminal gangs.
However, the Parliament voted to reaffirm the negotiating mandate on the current text. The proposal was adopted by 370 votes in favor, 163 against, and 31 abstentions. As expected, it was supported by nearly all leftist parties (S&D, Renew, Greens, The Left) as well as the vast majority of the EPP.
Reacting to the outcome, Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers, who initiated the motion on behalf of ECR, told The European Conservative:
Many parties that tell their voters they fight for security for our citizens today voted to restrict the right of member states to impose border controls. There is a word for that: hypocrisy.
While the proposal’s socialist rapporteur believes this would be necessary to protect the free movement within the bloc—after more and more countries began reinstating border checks to curb illegal migration—conservative MEPs argued that it “ignores the realities” of the migration crisis and undermines “the sovereignty of member states to control who enters their territory.”
Naturally, preserving the freedom of movement within the Schengen Area is a priority on the Right as well, but conservatives believe the issue should be solved by protecting the external borders rather than mandating countries keep their internal ones open. “We can solve the issue by building Fortress Europe and defending our borders,” Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki during the ECR Study Days in Madrid last month.
Nonetheless, Thursday’s vote is not the end of the story, as the European Council still has to agree on its position and a number of member states are likely to veto the current text without considerable changes.
