European Integration

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Table of contents

Introduction        2

The Schengen Area issues        3

What people think about Schengen        3

Economic concerns        4

Bringing back border controls        5

Consequences of a “non-Schengen”        7

Economic consequences        7

Impact on foreign investment and financial flows:        9

Impact on the European project:        9

Change in European police cooperation:        9

Conclusion        10

Introduction

It has been a few years that the relevance of Schengen Area is questioned by members and European partners of the European Union. The underlying causes are led by several fears. The fear of terrorism, the fear of flows of refugees and migrants, the fear of losing control on borders and the fear of economic leakage.

These fears led to restrictions established on borders between countries due to refugee crisis, terrorist attacks occurred in Europe in November 2015 and Brexit. It raised the issue of the still validity of Schengen Area.

Does the Schengen Area still deserve to be saved by Europe?

To answer this question, we are using two different ways to bring it up. The first one is a survey made by European Council on Foreign Relations (which is a think tank specialized on European issues) with the people of the 28 members of the European Union, asking about their concerns and their opinion about the Schengen Area. We will see what people think about Schengen and the differences between countries.

http://www.ecfr.eu/specials/scorecard/schengen_flash_scorecard

The second way of bringing the subject is through a report of the European Parliament based on a hypothetic removal of the Schengen Area and its consequences on European members and their economy.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2016/578990/IPOL_IDA(2016)578990_EN.pdf 

The Schengen Area issues

What people think about Schengen

Some countries in Europe have already suspended Schengen, because of issues we talked about before. But, beside establishing again border controls, these countries belonging to the Schengen Area, are not questioning the principles and the future of Schengen. The short-term decisions are not impacting the structure of the Schengen Area itself. Moreover, the governments are supporting and defending borderless politics against sceptics. The ECF shows that 22 of the 28 members states are confident about the future of the Schengen Area. The 6 other countries are doubting but conscious that Schengen will recover, but it shows that all the members are not unanimous on the current system. Even Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of European Commission, declared in November 2015 that “Schengen is partially comatose”.

The principle of Schengen system is still very important to people in Europe. The first concern is the free movement of people (13 countries on 28 found that it is the most important), followed by the benefits on the European economy and the regulation of the migration flows.

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These three concerns are linked, because without free movement of people, goods and capital, it cannot exist any economic growth between European countries. Also, the common borders outside Europe is supposed to be a strength against illegal migration flows. But the last counter examples are very relevant about the weaknesses of Schengen area, because once the illegal migrants have passed the borders of Schengen, there are no more border control inside Schengen, which led to a situation of crisis between members, had a negative impact on European countries economy and had affected the politics and relationship between countries. Brexit being one of the most negative consequences of this crisis.

Concerning the security based on the fears of terrorist attacks, the survey shows that all the countries are confident about Schengen being able to protect them against these threats, even if several states have re-establish borders, they are convinced that they will be finally removed, but maybe not at the same conditions.

Economic concerns

The economic concerns are in the heart of Schengen subject, it is the major reason why Schengen is still standing up through the storm. Indeed, the members have built their economic system based on free trade and movement through transport for instance, it would be a huge concern for them if we consider at least to reconsider the economic terms and conditions of the Schengen area.

The European Commission has evaluated the cost increase of a removal of Schengen of about €7.5 billion each year. For example, the establishment of border controls between Denmark and Sweden represents an additional cost of €13,000 each day. More than increasing trades and reducing taxes, which could have a negative impact on the poorest countries, Schengen has highly reduced the administration costs by removing borders.

The Bertelsmann Foundation (a neoliberal non-profit foundation in Germany) has stated that the re-establishment of border controls would lead to a loss of about €77 billion for Germany between 2016 and 2025, and a total €470 billion loss for the whole European Union. Through these figures, we can see that Schengen has been a huge economic opportunity for the leaders of Europe, especially Germany which is the biggest exportation country in Europe.

The main issue nowadays, and which is one of the main causes of the migrant crisis, is that there are a few countries directly exposed with non-European countries where refugees come from, such as Turkey. Greece is the most involved in this issue, indeed, refugees pass through Turkey, and are hoping to go in Europe, they go then through Greek borders. The problem is that, because of the giant economic crisis impacting Greece, the Greek government doesn’t have enough financial means to control the flows. In the same time, the leaders of Europe such as France and Germany are asking Greece to stop the flows but they don’t raise enough fund to help Greece, who is arguing that anyway, the migrants and refugees are not supposed to stay because they want to reach France, Germany and United Kingdom, so without enough means, they let them go into Schengen Area.

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