Borders: European Parliament acts
01 January 1991
Borders: European Parliament acts
artdoc August=1993
On 15 July the European Parliament finally decided to initiate
legal proceedings against the European Commission over the issue
of border controls. The action, being taken under Article 175,
is based on the failure of the European Commission in ensuring
that the deadline of 1 January 1993 for the removal of border
controls was met by the 12 EC states. The Commission has two
months to say what it intends to do to get member states to
remove border checks. If the response is not satisfactory then
the action before the Court of Justice will begin (see Statewatch
vol 2 nos 5 & 6; vol 3 no 3).
Members of the European Parliament have expressed increasing
frustration with the continuation of passport checks after the
1 January deadline. The nine countries who are signatories to the
Schengen Agreement - Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal,
Greece, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg - have finally agreed
to remove controls from 1 December 1993. But the three other
countries - UK, Denmark and Ireland - will continue with
controls. The UK says it intends to maintain controls
`indefinitely' (see In brief below). Denmark says it will remove
them when certain conditions are met - the ratification of Dublin
and External Borders Conventions and the start of the European
Information System (EIS) - which will not be until the end of
1994 at the very earliest.
Statewatch vol 3 no 4 July-August 1993