2012-04-26T15:24:20Z https://www.treffpunkteuropa.de/JEF-France-and-JEF-Germany-urge-their-governments-not-to-re,04945#comment12700 2012-04-26T15:24:20Z

<p>Ironic in the extreme that the passport illustrated in the picture that accompanies this article is that of the UK which is not part of the Schengen Agreement and has retained its border controls.</p> <p>It is also amusing that German and France are pressuring Denmark re amending the Schengen Agreement given that Denmark took steps of it's own to improve border security in 2011 involving the deployment of national border staff and stopping of travellers.</p> <p>The point regarding countries with no exterior EU border hiding “behind the overburdened southern and eastern Member States” is well made. However most of the immigrants transiting these exterior borders do not want to settle in the first country they encounter, they want to travel onwards to other countries for economic and / or cultural reasons. Therefore the countries in charge of the borders do not have the same degree of concern or motivation as Germany, France, Denmark etc. in tackling immigration. If the countries that are the ultimate destinations (and more importantly their people) are not absolutely convinced of the security of the external EU borders then do not be surprised if increasingly the pressure is to resurrect national frontiers.</p> <p>The alternative ? How about a border force created from personnel from all the Schengen Agreement countries and administered independently by the EU, that is, all Schengen countries lose any sovereign control of their national frontiers. (Clearly Iceland would be in a problematic position.) How popular would that be I wonder ?</p>