The EU will rush through proposals for major changes to the rules of the passport-free Schengen zone by the end of 2015to boost security following the Paris attacks, French interior minister Bernard C
The EU will rush through proposals for major changes to the rules of the passport-free Schengen zone by the end of 2015to boost security following the Paris attacks, French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Friday.
“The European Commission has agreed to present, by the end of the year, a plan to reform the Schen-gen border code to allow systematic and obligatory checks at all external borders for all travellers, including those who benefit from free movement,” he said after an emergency meeting with his EU counterparts. “It’s a crucial change,” he added.
The interior ministers also agreed to temporarily tighten checks at Schen-gen’s external borders in the meantime. The Paris attacks in which 130 people died have raised troubling questions about border security in the Schengen zone, where citizens of 22 EU countries, plus non-EU Norway, Switzerland, Icela-nd and Liechtenstein enjoy passport-free travel.
Schengen has come under scrutiny following the revelations that some of the Paris attackers came from Belgium, and that alleged ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud may have come back from fighting with ISIS in Syria to take part before his death in a police raid on Wednesday.
EU officials said travellers will now not only have their passports examined but have their personal information checked with databases.
The European Commiss-ion on Friday also called for the establishment of an EU-wide intelligence agency in the wake of the Paris massacre that left 129 people dead last Friday. “We hope that Eur-ope, which has wasted too much time on a number of urgent issues, today takes the decisions that we must take,” French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
The EU meeting was bei-ng held amid concerns abo-ut how the Paris gunmen were able to remain under the radar despite some sho-wing signs of radicalism and moving through several European countries.
“I believe it is a moment to make one more step forward and put the basis for the creation of a European intelligence agency,” EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said. But German interior minister Thomas de Maiz-iere said he found it hard to believe that the 28-nation EU was “ready to give up our national sovereignty”. “We should concentrate on the improvement of the exchange of information,” he said.
