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“I strongly believe in European freedom of movement, but in the face of the threats, we can only maintain freedom if we protect the external borders,” Macron said at the closing press conference in Paris. The French president had previously had a personal conversation with Kurz at the lyse-Palast. “We cannot do without knowing who enters and leaves the EU,” Kurz said. In addition to regular border checks, better cooperation is needed between secret services and security forces such as Europol or the border protection agency Frontex.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) also stressed that the European Union was “primarily concerned with protecting the external border.” However, citizens of the Schengen area “do not have to adjust to further controls at the moment,” said Merkel, whose country will hold the rotating presidency of the EU Council until the end of the year.
At the same time, the French head of state reiterated his call for a “reorganization of the Schengen area”, which is currently “not a security area” due to lax controls. The suspected Tunisian assassin, who killed three people in a Nice church almost two weeks ago, had entered France unhindered via Italy.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “loopholes in the Schengen Information System” (SIS) should be removed. Currently, “only 80 per cent of all passengers are actually systematically screened” when entering the EU. These are simple measures such as passing a passport through a reader, he stressed. At the same time, von der Leyen referred to “a new Schengen strategy” that the EU Commission intends to present next May. This will give Europol more responsibilities, among other things.
On the other hand, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had joined the video conference on short notice, said he was “concerned” about possible changes to the Schengen Agreement. “It is one of the great achievements that internal borders are open,” he said. Looking ahead to Macron’s reform initiative, Merkel said that stricter controls were already possible in the Schengen area, for example through the search for the veil.
Federal Chancellor Kurz expressed concern about the jihadists who are in European prisons and who will soon be released. “These are time bombs,” he said. “We need a more robust approach to threats in Europe.” In Vienna, a 20-year-old Islamist killed four people on Monday last week before the police shot him. The jihadist militia “Islamic State” (IS) claimed the attack for themselves.
Furthermore, the EU partners also want to combat hate messages on the internet in a more specific way, as Macron said. In the future, these should disappear from the network in an hour, he stressed. EU interior ministers are due to discuss new measures on Friday. The EU summit in mid-December will also address the fight against terrorism.
The video summit had the impression of several attacks in recent weeks. Germany was also the latest blow: in Dresden, a Syrian classified as a threat attacked two tourists with a knife in early October and killed one of them.
The chairman of the EPP group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, said that the most urgent measures would be the establishment of a European threat dossier, in which the EU states would have to introduce the threats into their country, as well as the ability to quickly remove terrorist propaganda material. The Internet.
