Arguments about possible restoration of borders within the Schengen Area may delay the process of liberalization of visa regime for Ukraine for a very long time or even break it once and for all
The statement by the German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich on the necessity of introduction of temporary border control inside the Schengen Area was not totally out of the blue. European heavyweights have been long displeased with extremely transparent borders with Greece and Italy. However, no one expected such harsh comments after the most recent assurances by Angela Merkel’s spokesman Georg Streiter about Germany’s dedication to the EU ideals in general and free migration between the countries in particular.
The words of the German interior minister came on the heels of the recent statements made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who in the heat of election campaign instead of «temporary measures» suggested returning to full-fledged border control all along French borders. Despite the admiration of his commentators, it seemed like a campaign trick and did not work. Socialists leaded by Francois Hollande, whose ratings steadily leave Sarkozy behind, said something about «na?ve phantasies». President of the Front National Marine Le Pen, whose votes Sarkozy seeks to steal, softly reminded him about his traditional support to most of the Euro-integration prospects, on the background of which such «campaign drift to the right» did not seem to be very sincere.
However, Sarkozy’s campaign pledges and poorly coordinated statements from the German government are not the first attempt to reestablish control over the flows of illegal migrants inside the EU. The pioneer was Denmark, which introduced such control without any loud announcements last year – supposedly to boost clampdown on international crime. However, evil tongues not without reasons claimed that check-points opened on the Denmark-Germany border without were aimed not to please the strict Danish police but rather members of the extreme right People’s Party, which was supposed to support the ruling party at the upcoming elections.
Despite bring tired of illegal migrants, an overwhelming majority of European countries are not ready to scrap Schengen agreements yet. Optimists hope for positive results of the «last warning» issued to Athens in early March at a meeting of prime ministers of Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands. Greece promised to deal with the situation by June (according to various numbers 100,000 – 180,000 illegal migrants, or 90% of the general inflow, get into the EU via Greece annually).
It is hard to believe the pledges of Greeks – even despite that EUR 250 mn were allocated for «reinforcement of the perimeter». The reasons are many – beginning with the long land and sea frontiers and up to the specifics of functioning of Greek state institutions and moods of the population in Greece. One recent example: in response to the government’s decision to build 30 centers for confinement of illegal migrants before sending them back to their respective homelands, residents of a village in which one of such centers was supposed to be built started erecting barricades preparing to protect their neighborhood to the last.
Meanwhile, Germany, Austria and Finland discuss the reestablishment of border control for people arriving from Greece. Such decision is yet to be made but eyewitnesses say that police officers in German airports often «random» check passengers landing in flights from Greece.
Despite Greek difficulties, it is maybe too early to make gloating comments on the looming sunset of the Schengen Area. Moderate EU politicians, especially those who will not be running for any offices within the next six months, suggest comparing potential expenses on reestablishment of the comprehensive border control and expenses on deportation of illegal migrants. At the same time they remind that terrorists have no difficulty to arrive to countries that are not members of the Schengen Area, for example, Britain.
In the meantime, Greece does not seem too worried by the impending exclusion from the Schengen Area, at least in the short-time perspective. The country is planning to fight the economic crisis by increased tourist inflows, so it will be able to cancel altogether or reduce to mere formality the visa regime for many foreign guests– including from Russia and Ukraine. At the same time cash-strapped Greece will remain a transit country for migrants and may secretly assist liberation of its own territory by slacking border control with its northern neighbors. And not just to spite: according to the Greek Foundation for European and Foreign Policy there is 1.1 mn immigrants in the country, 400,000 of them without any registration (with the population of Greece at 11 mn). Neither economy nor state institutions are able to cope with such an alien inflow independently.
For the Schengen Area, exclusion of Greece will be tantamount to acknowledgement that the United Europe collapsed under the inflow of migrants like the Roman Empire once fell under the attacks of barbarians. The obvious consequences will be the growing xenophobia and utter failure of multiculturalism because the process will not end with Greece. Immigrants will exert more pressure on economies and social services in peripheral EU countries, which will only aggravate imbalance in economic development of the union in general and will eventually question the future of the Eurozone.
One can assume that in order to avoid such apocalyptic scenario the EU will take a complex of strict measures to control the trans-border traffic. Under the public pressure and red-tape excessive zeal, such measures will not always be adequate. For Kyiv such a turn of events is fraught with an indefinite postponement or total torpedoing of the liberalization of visa regime – just because the governments of the leading EU members may decide that «border closure» would be the only chance to save the Union.
Source: KyivWeekly
