Desafios para a Europa com o alargamento de Schengen (imigração e segurança)

1. Schengen is a great success:

Let me be clear from the beginning: there are some people that would prefer that Europe would have remained only an Internal Market. But there are others (to which I belong) that believe that Europe should not only be the Europe of goods, services and capital, but also the Europe of citizens. That is the reason why we are establishing an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice and in its core the Schengen area.

·        That is the reason why we want to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of its Member States;

·        That is the reason why we want to reinforce the citizenship of the Union, placing citizens' rights at the heart of the European Union;

·        That is the reason why we are trying to put away the last remaining obstacles to freedom of movement;

·         That is the reason why we want to strengthen security;

In the spirit of bringing the Union closer to its citizens, the creation of the Schengen area, in the late 80s and early 90s was one of European history's greatest successes. In my opinion it can be considered as one of the most tangible and perceivable results of EU membership. Where the participating countries, and its citizens, can benefit from the absence of controls at shared borders and a freedom of movement within this area.

2. Preserve Schengen

That is the reason why we should preserve Schengen!

Over the last 25 years, the successive Schengen enlargements have shifted the physical location of the Schengen external borders. At this moment the free movement is guaranteed on a territory with 42 673 km of external sea and 7 721 km of land borders, covering 25 countries and 400 million citizens.

Removal of checks at internal borders makes the controls at external borders crucial, since one Member State is responsible for carrying out the checks on behalf of the other Schengen countries.

A full mutual trust between the Member States is needed, concerning their capacity to fully implement the accompanying measures.

Indeed, the security of the Schengen area depends on the rigour and effectiveness with each Member State carries out controls at its external borders, as well as on the quality and speed through which information is exchanged through the SIS.

The fragility or inadequate functioning of any of these elements poses a risk to the security of the European Union and to the efficiency of the Schengen area.

3. Better Governance of the Schengen area

Since the beginning of the year, there has been a massive displacement of people from several North African countries. These events have put the protection and reception systems of some of the EU Member States under increasing strain, leading some Member States to request the introduction of a possibility to reintroduce national border controls in face of a sudden and high migratory inflow of immigrants.

These increasing migration flows, evolving threats and risks and the enlargement of the Schengen area has required a rethinking of how the external borders of the EU can best be protected.

However, we can not accept any attempts to restrict the freedom of movement, a core symbol of Europe, especially as result of highly populist anti-European pressures. I subscribe the words of Commissioner Malmstrom: "we need leadership that can stand up against poor and simplistic solutions. We need clarity, responsibility and solidarity. We need more Europe, not less".

European Union needs a stronger common asylum and migration policy, namely the completion of the Common European Asylum System, expected to be done by 2012, and in parallel, it's necessary more solidarity:  these extraordinary migration situations can not be handled at the national level alone, but requires a mobilisation of all Member States at the EU level and the use of all operational and financial tools at EU disposal.

We have to fight against the tendency where immigration seems to be the area in which there has both been least actual movement towards solidarity across the EU, and the lowest level of interest or apparent need for Member States to cooperate.

It is clear the need to strengthened Schengen governance, to help to ensure that each Member State can control effectively its part of the EU's external borders, to reinforce mutual trust and to build trust in the effectiveness of the EU system of migration management.

On my opinion, the correct and effective implementation of the Schengen acquis is still the basis of any effort to guarantee internal security and a comprehensive policy to manage external borders.

That is the reason why the evaluation mechanism has a crucial role in order to monitor how the Member States implement the common standards.

I don't have any doubts that the efficiency of the actual evaluation process needs to be improved, the new mechanism should help to reinforce the free movement of persons, be able to monitor effectively any attempt to introduce illegal border controls at internal borders, and to help to reinforce mutual trust, by ensuring an effective control of the external borders by each Member State.

In order to guarantee a proper implementation and application of the Schengen acquis by the Member States after their accession, we should follow a step-by-step approach:

-    reinforcing the existing mechanism of evaluation, by making it a EU system;

-    monitoring and evaluating in an effective and efficient way

-    helping the Member States facing some problems, at early stage, to solve their deficiencies (with an increasing role of Frontex, in terms of support)

-    Applying sanctions, in case the deficiencies persist and they might put in stake the overall security of the Schengen area

4. Building the Europe of citizens

Following the EU membership it is a natural and legitimate expectancy of the nationals of the country in question to become full members of the Schengen area and to be able to benefit from the same rights and obligations as any other EU citizen.

Every Schengen enlargement started following a request of the respective Member State (declaration of readiness) and a verification took place, through evaluation procedures and visits, in order to verify if the necessary conditions for the application of all parts of the Schengen acquis (Data Protection, the Schengen Information System, Air Borders, Land Borders, Sea Borders, Police Cooperation and Visas) have been met by the new Member State.

A final report established whether the new Member State concerned, after being subject to a full evaluation procedure, fulfils all the preconditions for the practical application of the Schengen acquis. The integration decision, implying the lifting of borders, is made by the Council, by unanimous decision of all governments of the states which already belong to the Schengen area.

Allow me to be crystal clear. The technical Evaluation Reports confirmed that Romania and Bulgaria are ready to join this area. The European Parliament has approved, with large majority, my Report stating the same conclusion.

Council must decide!

Delaying the decision is not only unfair, but creates also a feeling of rejection and weakens the European citizenship in itself. To build the Europe of citizens cannot be done with the back turned to the citizens. It has to be done with full trust on the citizens and by reinforcing our common project of European Integration.