Limitations on Schengen to Curb Flow of Terrorism

At an informal meeting of heads of state in Brussels on February 12, European Union leaders agreed that stricter measures need to be put in place for travelers entering the Schengen Area, or the free-movement area zone encompassing twenty-six European countries. Although EU citizens will be able to avoid extensive ID checks under the pre-existing Schengen agreement (signed in 1985), leaders hope that these strengthened measures will help disrupt terrorist travel and increase safety within the EU.

Recent terrorist attacks—most notably in Paris, which left 17 people murdered—have prompted this sudden political development. European leaders have emphasized that their immediate priority is “ensuring the safety of their citizens”, and to help meet this goal, they have urged legislatures to implement additional safeguards, including the expansion of databases to better identify threats and the improvement of border control procedures.

As an example, Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld said the European Commission should counter the terror threat to the continent with a “tailor-made and evidence-based” security response, while offering substantive safeguards to protect personal data. If member states cannot agree, these proposals (like the current MEP resolution) will likely fail—even if they are only in their nascent stages.

That being said, it seems unlikely that the European Parliament’s call for greater unity and common information exchange will be denied. The terrorist attacks, although tragic, have finally given the EU a reason to consolidate, and perhaps begin to build a stronger, more integrated security community (a major weakness of the larger EU project).

In many ways, the situation is reminiscent of the U.S.’s decision to prioritize security over personal freedoms like privacy, embodied in the 2001 Patriot Act. As it was for the Americans in the wake of 9/11, fear is now a powerful motivator for European leaders, and it may provide the impetus for forging a level of political integration unseen since the 1992 signing of the Maastricht Treaty—which lead to the creation of the Euro, and has since been referred to informally as “the pillar structure” of the EU. 

The possibility of increasing data-sharing among EU member states is of particular importance, largely because such efforts have been met with failure in the past. Member states have resisted efforts to build a comprehensive database, citing high costs (in terms of time and physical resources necessary for building an adequate technological infrastructure), as well as typical civil liberty and privacy concerns. Nevertheless, better information sharing would be an important step toward bringing the EU into the 21st century. Not only would it help officials identify possible terrorist threats, but it would also enable better communication between regional governments and diminish bureaucratic slowdown.

Meanwhile, European leaders have also acknowledged that they may need to do more than simply reform border control to prevent radicalization. In the wake of the recent Charlie Hebdo attack, the EU, whose anti-terrorist initiative began in 2005, has recognized the need to adopt a more comprehensive strategy in the face of an increasingly prevalent phenomenon. According to the European Council, such strategies would include: “removing internet content promoting terrorism or extremism, creating novel communication strategies to promote tolerance and solidarity throughout the EU, and narratives to counter terrorist ideologies.”

Should these initiatives be replicated in other areas of the EU, we may be witnessing the onset of an unprecedented upswing in government spending. If terrorism does end up becoming a catalyst for progress, it is likely that, in typical EU fashion, development will capitalize on existing institutional designs, as policy-makers stress that any reform will occur through the existing Schengen framework. While the EU may never form a European CIA, these modest steps would be very important toward the creation of a safer, and certainly more efficient, European Union.