Vulcan Consulting | Macron calls for “Schengen Council”, mirroring Eurogroup

Speaking to EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers ahead of Wednesday’s informal Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) in the French city of Lille, President Macron called on Ministers to further develop the EU’s free movement Schengen area to ensure it remains fit for the challenges of today.

A reform of the Schengen area has been the agenda of EU JHA Ministers for several years, with little to no progress achieved so far. Together with the EU’s Single Market and the single currency, the passport-free travel across the European Union, enabled by the 26-year-old Schengen area, is one of the primary achievements of the European Union for its citizens and businesses.

However, the multitude of cross-border challenges Europeans have faced over the last few years, have increasingly highlighted the need to update and reform the 1985 Schengen Agreement. In light of the migration crisis, cross-border terrorist attacks, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which suddenly saw inner-EU border re-emerge in 2020, it has become increasingly clear that there is a need to reform the way Europe manages its internal and external borders.

In this context, the European Commission also presented its Schengen Strategy in June 2021, calling on JHA Ministers to evaluate the area’s proper application, setting clear guidelines for the reintroduction of internal border controls, responding to the instrumentalisation of migration by third countries, learning lessons from the pandemic, and introducing exhaustive checks on irregular arrivals at the EU’s external border.

Now, to kick-start this stalled reform process, President Macron called on Ministers to consider the setting of a so-called “Schengen Council” which would provide the area with the same kind of political oversight, ownership, and leadership currently in place for the single currency Eurozone.

Crucially, via regular meetings, it would allow Schengen area Member States to take political ownership of issues such as irregular migration when they arise, thus potentially circumventing the need for long-term negotiated agreements. “What we really want is a Schengen Council, with a coordinator, so that ministers can regularly take decisions […] and politically steer this area […] like we do for another of our common treasures, the euro,” he told Ministers. He also added that the inaugural meeting could be organised for as early as the next regular JHA Council meeting on 3 March.

Just like the Eurogroup, as an informal Council body, any potential Schengen Council, while not requiring Treaty change, would need the political buy in from all 22 EU Schengen countries. It, however, remains to be seen whether, and to what extent, Macron’s plans would also include Schengen’s non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland in the decision-making process.

Compliments of Vulcan Consulting – a member of the EACCNY.