The Schengen Borders Code arouses concern in Spain for fear that police checks will turn into covert border controls.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, warned this Monday that Spain will not allow steps back in the European Schengen borderless area, on the eve of the European Commission presenting a long-awaited review.
“Schegen was created for the freedom of movement within the European space, for the freedom of movement of European citizens, and this achievement is an achievement of European construction. Spain is not going to allow it to go behind in it,” said Albares in an appearance before the Spanish press at the end of a European Foreign Council held today in Brussels.
The Community Executive plans to present its long-awaited revision of the Schengen Borders Code this Tuesday, which arouses concern in Spain due to the fear that police checks will become disguised border controls.
The position of Spain, he remarked, is “very clear: integrity and respect for the Schengen area is an absolute achievement of European construction.”
The Schengen area, insisted the head of Spanish diplomacy, is “one of the great achievements of the EU construction; it is together with freedom of movement and the single currency probably among the main achievements, and I would say and for Spain of course it is. it is, one of the inalienable achievements “.
Albares stressed that “everything that damages the integrity of the Schengen area will not have the support of Spain because it will represent a step backwards in the construction of Europe.”
“Those of us who are pro-European, what we believe in Europe, we believe that Europe has to move forward, not go backward,” the minister remarked.
Albares rejected that freedom of movement in the EU can be mixed with the debate on migratory crises, since “they have absolutely nothing to do with it.”
“Irregular migratory movements, which have a lot of use, and at the moment we are seeing a political use of them, which is the most aberrant way of using human beings, has many treatments,” reflected Albares, alluding to Belarus and the use that that country’s regime has made people in what has been seen as a “hybrid attack” on the EU.
As an example of how to proceed in the face of migratory phenomena, Albares put the policy of the Spanish authorities for years.
“Spain has known about irregular migratory movements for a long time and has shown that there are very effective ways to cooperate with countries of transit and origin and to prevent it.”
It is, said the minister, a matter of “substance” and must be managed with “long-term” schemes. (I)
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