Euro's Future At Risk If EU Border-Free System Fails, Juncker Warns -- Update
25 November 2015 - 7:07PM
Dow Jones News
By Laurence Norman
The head of the European Union's executive Wednesday gave his
sharpest warning yet about the possible effect of a collapse of the
Schengen border-free area and cautioned it could undo the bloc's
single currency project.
The Schengen system has come under severe pressure in recent
months because of the influx of migrants into the region -- the
biggest migratory wave since the aftermath of World War II. The
terror attacks in Paris have only compounded the crisis.
France and Germany are among the countries that have ramped up
border controls. EU governments also are looking at revamping the
system's rules to tighten the bloc's external borders and ensure a
fairer distribution of asylum seekers across the bloc.
Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg about the
recent terror attacks in Paris, European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker acknowledged the "Schengen system is partly
comatose."
"If the spirit of Schengen leaves us...we'll lose more than the
Schengen agreement. A single currency doesn't make sense if
Schengen fails," he said. "You must know that Schengen is not a
neutral concept. It's not banal. It's one of the main pillars of
the construction of Europe."
It isn't the first time Mr. Juncker has warned about the fate of
the 26-member Schengen zone. Those concerns have been echoed by
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has said that without greater
burden-sharing among EU countries the border-free system can't
last. However, Mr. Juncker had not previously linked Schengen's
fate to the future of the single currency.
In theory, the reintroduction of border controls wouldn't
directly threaten the single currency zone. While it could slow
trade across the bloc, the euro's vital underpinnings -- free
capital flows, freedom of labor movement and the bloc's single
market of goods and services -- would remain intact.
However, as one of the central symbols of the EU project,
Schengen's collapse would likely have huge political
repercussions.
A senior EU official said Mr. Juncker sharpened his warnings
Wednesday because of a fear that the bloc was now facing "an
existential crisis." With Brussels already struggling to coordinate
an EU-wide response to the migration challenge, the terror attacks
in Paris have intensified concerns in Brussels that each government
will respond unilaterally, further fraying Schengen.
The commission chief has argued throughout the last few months
there is no effective way of locking migrants out of the bloc and
that only greater European coordination to handle the influx can
meet the challenge.
Mr. Juncker said that following the Nov. 13 Paris attacks,
European politicians must resist the temptation to "mix up" asylum
seekers and terrorists. He said those inciting violence in the EU
"are the same people who are forcing the unlucky of this planet to
flee" Syria and other places.
But there are sharp divisions over migration.
Some governments have said that the open door migration policy
championed by Berlin and Brussels has attracted hundreds of
thousands of asylum seekers. They claim that burden-sharing plans
for those already in the EU have simply diverted attention from
taking key measures to tighten borders.
Others are calling for a more radical approach.
Responding to Mr. Juncker's comments in the European Parliament,
Marine Le Pen, an EU lawmaker and leader of France's far-right
National Front movement, said her party would fight to permanently
restore national borders.
She said it was the only way to stem mass migration and secure
the country against the terror threat.
She said the EU's "ridiculous, imbecile" policies were "an
obstacle to securing the freedom of the French people."
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 25, 2015 13:52 ET (18:52 GMT)
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