European Union’s Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson has recently declared that it was time for Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania to join the Schengen Agreement, calling on all EU member states to back their accession.
Established back in 1995, the Schengen area currently consists of all European Union member countries except Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, Ireland and Cyprus. Four more states outside of EU bloc are also part of the zone: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
Under the Schengen Agreement, controls at the borders between signatories were abolished.
However, some countries, including Austria, opted to reinstate border controls amid the migrant crisis of 2015 to prevent hordes of illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East from swarming into their territories.
Upon Yvla Johansson’s declaration, Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner has stated that the country will not back an expansion of the Schengen Zone at this point.
Citing lax controls at the Schengen Zone’s external borders, Karner said: “To vote on an expansion would be ill-timed now, when the system of external borders doesn’t function.”
According to the minister, there is an ongoing problem with flow of illegal migrants via the Balkans currently, and more than 90,000 of them had been apprehended in Austria since the start of this year alone.
Karner reiterates that the “protection of the external Schengen borders has failed,” and warned that “expanding a broken system cannot work.”
Potential expansion of the Schengen borderless zone could prove to be a contentious topic at next week’s special meeting of the European Union interior ministers.
The vote on the proposal is expected to be held on December 8, with the unanimous support of all 27 nations needed to pass the decision.
