1/22/16, "EU leaders consider two-year suspension of Schengen rules," UK Telegraph, by Matthew Holehouse and Ben Riley Smith
"Leaders will consider emergency measures to reintroduce internal borders at meeting on Monday, as France warns the entire European project is in 'very grave danger'"
"The Schengen system of free movement could be
suspended for two years under emergency measures to be discussed by
European ministers on Monday, as the French Prime Minister warned the
crisis could bring down the entire European Union.
Manuel Valls said that the “very idea of Europe” will be torn apart
until the flows of migrants expected to surge in spring are turned away.
On Monday, interior ministers from
the EU will meet in Amsterdam to discuss emergency measures to allow
states to reintroduce national border controls for two years.
The powers are allowed under the Schengen rules, but would amount to an unprecedented abandonment of the 30-year old agreement that allows passport-free travel across 26 states....
“This possibility exists, it is there and the Commission is prepared to use it if need be," said Natasha Bertaud, a spokesman for Jean-Claude Juncker.
Greece has been blamed by states for failing to identify and register hundreds of thousands of people flowing over its borders.
Other states that have introduced emergency controls are Sweden, Austria, France, Denmark and Norway, which is not in the EU but is in Schengen....
In a further blow, Mr Valls said that France would keep its state of emergency, which has included border checks, until the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant network is destroyed.
"It is a total and global war that we are facing with terrorism," he said.
"It's Europe that could die, not the Schengen area. If Europe can't protect its own borders, it's the very idea of Europe that could be thrown into doubt. It could disappear, of course - the European project, not Europe itself, not our values, but the concept we have of Europe, that the founding fathers had of Europe."
"Yes, that is in very grave danger. That's why you need border guards, border controls on the external borders of the European Union."
He said Europe must tell refugees that they cannot expect to reach Europe.
"We cannot say or accept that all refugees can be welcomed in Europe,"
"Germany is faced with a major challenge. We need to help Germany. But the first message we need to send now is with the greatest of firmness is to say that we will not welcome all the refugees in Europe. Because a message that says come, you will be welcome, provokes major shifts," he told the BBC.
Viktor Orban, Hungary's Prime Minister, said that a fence should be erected on the Macedonian and Bulgarian borders with Greece to curb the inflow of migrants into Europe.
Stefan Lofven, the Swedish Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, have each in the past week said that leaders have until March to save the Schengen zone.
Jean-Claude Juncker has warned that if the Schengen zone dies then the euro and the single market could follow.
Austria announced on Wednesday that it planned to limit the number of people allowed to apply for asylum to 1.5 percent of its population over the next four years, or 37,500.
The move piles more pressure on Angela Merkel, who is facing intense demands from her conservative allies to follow suit.
EU border agency Frontex said on Friday some 108,000 migrants arrived in December in Greece.
That compares to 150,000 arrivals in November and puts the total for Greece and Italy at 1.04 million in 2015, or five times as many as in 2014, Frontex said.
Crossings have slowed due to the cold weather, and are expected to surge when the spring returns."
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