European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 401

EU governments have placed a large question mark over the future of Europe’s passport-free travel zone, signalling an extension of national border controls within the 26-country Schengen area in response to the immigration crisis.

As Europe scrambled to put together a coherent answer to the biggest challenge the union has ever faced, EU interior ministers meeting in Amsterdam on Monday compounded a sense of gloom and confusion in the face of ever rising numbers of people heading into Greece from Turkey.

Klaas Dijkhoff, the Dutch migration minister, said the governments were to ask the European commission for permission to extend and prolong the border controls from May because the numbers of refugees reaching Europe were not diminishing.

Under the rules governing the open travel area, governments could suspend the Schengen system for two years, dealing a potentially terminal blow to a scheme that has been in place for more than 20 years. “These measures are inevitable at this point in time,” said Dijkhoff of the likely suspension.

Following eight hours of talks in the Dutch capital, the Austrian interior minister, Johana Mikl-Leitner, said “Schengen is on the brink of collapse.”

In the past week national leaders and senior EU officials have made increasingly alarmist pronouncements on Schengen’s future, warning that the travel zone could crumble within weeks and bring with it the risk of union dissolution.

The countries bearing the brunt of the mass influx of more than 1 million asylum seekers in the past year rounded on Athens, with Austria bluntly dismissing Greek arguments and warning that it could be kicked out, at least temporarily, of the Schengen area.

On January 26 2016 06:53 RvB wrote:

You will have to secure those same borders plus all the internal national borders if you get rid of Schengen. That's kind of the point, they want to secure their borders so they're trying to get rid of Schengen. That's nonsensical since you'll only have more border to secure.

On January 26 2016 06:53 Nyxisto wrote:
borders were secure because a non-significant number of people tried to cross them illegally, not because they offered any more or less protection than they do now. Also East Germany was good at keeping the misery in, not out

On January 26 2016 06:48 hfglgg wrote:
of course you can, its just a matter of how much you want to pay for it. every country was able to secure their borders before schengen and if you let people die in the Mediterranean sea instead of trying to save everyone for whatever reasons thats not a big problem either.
east germany secured their borders without much of a problem in a very short time and no one was able to get in or out without much more preperation than what is necessary today.

its a matter of will, not a matter of possibility.

On January 26 2016 07:41 Gorsameth wrote:
Even more then the actual effect of closing national borders is the psychological effect.
The lack of coherent answer from the EU and their inability to deal with the problem is making people question the existence of it the Union. This is the very sort of problem it is made for (aside from internal economics), if our politicians cant handle it then why do we want this Union?

A Union that somewhat works when all is well and utterly fails at its first tests (Greece and now Immigration) is garbage.

ps.
You secure the Mediterranean border at the African shore, not in the middle of the sea. When your rescuing/drowning people at sea your already to late.

On January 26 2016 08:10 Deathstar wrote:
You can patrol all you want you're not going to stop millions of people who want to get into Europe from getting in. It's more easier for European powers to use their influence to keep stable governments in North Africa and the Middle East. Now you guys realize how interconnected your live-beings are to your neighbors.