New Plan to Restore Free Movement in the Schengen Aria

The European Commission presented on Friday a plan to restore the free circulation in the Schengen area. With a deadline by the end of the year, the plan involves the circulation without any controls. This plan was created in the context of the European Union leaders pressuring Turkey to limit the influx of refugees, Reuters informs.

Before the emergency EU-Turkey summit scheduled on Monday, the European Commission announced the first installment payment of three billion funds for Ankara to stop the influx of immigrants. According to the European Commission, Turkey makes an important progress towards visa liberalization for Turkish citizens traveling in the European Union. Instead, Brussels asked Ankara to combat person trafficking and also take back illegal immigrants who do not qualify for asylum.

The European Commission presented an action plan in stages in order to limit immigration, given that more than one million immigrants have arrived in the Europe. Still, there cannot be free movement internally unless you secure the external borders as Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, reported for Reuters.

The plan proposes the implementation of already taken decisions to secure the external borders of the European Union. These include the creation of a new border agency and intensified Coast Guard patrols in the Mediterranean to deter migrants’ transit.

According to European experts, the collapse of the Schengen system would generate annual losses of 18 billion euros. Eight Member States have introduced in the recent months a number of border checks within the Schengen because of the influx of immigrants.