EU borders: European Parliament acts
01 July 2003
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.