Schengen: what on earth are Merkel and her President thinking?

Merkel pushes the globalist, Big State line in defiance of urgent national needs and good sense

 By Pam Barker | TLB staff writer

What is the Schengen Agreement? This Agreement basically requires all countries that have signed onto it, which is usually a necessary part of EU membership, to abolish national border controls and to permit free movement of citizens (and goods) within those countries, now totalling around 400 million. The so-called Schengen Area of 26 countries essentially operates like a single state for travel purposes. The 2 EU countries allowed to impose their own visa controls and basically opt out of the Agreement are the UK and Ireland. Four other non-EU countries that have formed their own trading partnership – Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland – are also part of the Schengen Area. When we think ‘Schengen’, we can generally think of most but not all European countries.

With the Charlie Hebdo Paris attacks in January of 2015, followed by the attacks that took place on the night of November 13 last year, along with the ongoing influx of migrants and refugees into Europe from a variety of countries that has been putting immense strain on national resources and security, pressure has been mounting for a while for EU countries to be able to tighten up their borders.  Indeed, evidence has emerged that most of the perpetrators of the Paris terror attacks were legitimate EU residents who had been able to travel freely across borders.  And in March in front of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove testified how ‘terrorists, criminals and foreign fighters are flowing into Europe among migrants’.

As a response to the problems posed by the enormous migrant influx, Schengen now permits individual countries to apply their own border controls on an emergency basis for a period of up to 8 months.  But now 6 countries – Sweden, Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium and Austria – are officially requesting the EU Commission to extend the extensions currently in place by 6 more months, and to extend the length of the emergency measure to 2 years instead of 6 months in the future. Sweden and Germany have, respectively, taken in the largest number of migrants per capita, and the largest absolute number.

Austria, to the chagrin of the EU Commission, has announced it will begin work on construction of a border control at the Brenner Pass, which allows people to enter its borders from Italy to the south. This in addition to tough new border controls.

Sweden has certainly been chafing under the massive numbers of migrants it has taken in, and now plans are underway to deport up to 80,000 or 50% of them, as we reported earlier. In light of the violent incidents and sexual assaults that have taken place, including the murder of a young woman at a refugee center, it is estimated that Sweden could seek its own Swexit option if Britain chooses to leave Europe in its June 23 ‘Brexit’ vote. Such is the pressure that many EU countries are under.

One wonders, then, which planet German President, Joaquim Gauck is living on.

This Monday, addressing 180 diplomats in Saarland, Gauck publicly urged all EU members to keep their borders open. So, too, for Angela Merkel. In her weekly address, she has also called for borders to remain open. While the EU Commission is likely to grant temporary extensions of border control requests, Merkel is against the granting of longer term border controls, and against the responsible initiatives of independent sovereign nations:

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear she was against any attempt to allow long-term border controls, saying she would fight to uphold EU citizens’ right to freedom of movement and residence within the bloc.

In her weekly video podcast, she urged EU member states to avoid seeking national solutions to European problems.

This despite her own country being one of the signatories to the request for extension time, as well as German Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere supporting states taking defensive action against new waves of incoming migrants and his repeated granting of extensions to those controls.

The reply of the EU Commission to the six-nation request is expected shortly.

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References

1 http://www.politico.eu/article/what-is-schengen-explainer-borders-europe-free-movement/

2 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3471522/US-general-says-terrorists-daily-refugee-flow-Europe.html

3 https://www.rt.com/news/341587-eu-border-control-extend/

4 http://www.dw.com/en/european-union-very-concerned-over-austria-border-control-plans/a-19182601

5 http://www.dw.com/en/germany-wants-eu-border-controls-extended/a-19226814

6 please follow link to TLB within the text

7 http://www.dw.com/en/german-president-gauck-urges-eu-to-maintain-open-borders/a-19230092

8 http://www.dw.com/en/germany-wants-eu-border-controls-extended/a-19226814

About the author

Pam Barker is a TLB staff writer/analyst based in France. She has an extensive background in the educational systems of several countries at the college and university level as a teacher and administrator.