howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
courtesy of the independent.
At a special meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels, a majority of member states backed changes that would allow individual nations to restore controls at their borders.
Unfettered travel across Europe, not including Britain or Ireland, was established by the Schengen agreement and has been a signature accomplishment of the EU for 16 years.
But at the closed meeting of ministers on Thursday, 15 states voted for the temporary return, as a last resort and under strict conditions, of border guards to deal with any sudden surge in migration.
They also supported reintroduction of guards if an EU state fails to control its frontier with non-EU nations. Only four nations were against, according to diplomats.
French Interior Minister Claude Gueant said: "A very wide consensus, if not near unanimity, was reached on the commission proposals."
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
#2
I can understand the decision. Italy let in just about anyone and everyone, legalised them all, and let them go over the border to France and Austria, and from there to whichever EU state they desired.
In fact, Italy periodically made an amnesty for all illegal immigrants, hundreds of thousands at a time, giving them an Italian identity card, which enabled them to travel anywhere in the EU.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#3
good thing it was stopped too, i notice that the meeting was held in secret - didn't want to harm their image.
the truth is that all countries deep down want to control their own borders, i reckon this will stay permanently and not be dropped when the current wave of african migrants closes.