12/01/2015
The Times is reporting â apparently without irony â that Spain is urging the EU to reimpose border controls in the Schengen zone, to halt the passage of Islamic fighters returning to Europe from the Middle East.
This comes from Jorge Fernández DÃaz, the Spanish interior minister, who put this to a session of interior (or their equivalents) ministers of the EU Member States, meeting at the behest of France which wants to strengthen co-operation after last week's attacks in Paris.
Many of the hundreds of Europeans fighting in Syria and Iraq have travelled via other member states in the 26-nation zone to avoid detection so Mr DÃaz tells us, "We are going to back border controls and it is possible that as a consequence it will be necessary to modify the Schengen treaty".
The irony, of course, is that there is no longer such a thing as the Schengen treaty. The
acquis was absorbed into the EU framework in 1999 as part of the
Amsterdam Treaty, and is no longer a separate agreement. Currently, it comprises Article 77 of the TFEU, which is one of the many sections which make up Part III.
Thus, it seems that Spanish politicians â or certainly Mr Diaz â are as ignorant about EU law as our own politicians. Thus, if he wants chances to the core provisions of what was the Schengen treaty, he is going to have to convince the "colleagues" to agree to a "full-on" treaty change.
However, since the
acquis is now in Part III (TFEU), it would be possible to use the Art.48 "simplified revision procedure", without having to go the whole hog and calling up a treaty convention. However, it is hard to see what Mr Diaz has in mind, as the current treaty allows for "the gradual introduction of an integrated management system for external borders".
This would seem to give the EU the necessary powers to give him what he needs, without treaty change. Adaptations to the
Schengen Border Code might be sufficient, which could be done on the basis of a Commission proposal for an amended regulation, adopted via the ordinary legislative procedure.
If Mr Diaz insists that a treaty change is necessary, though, this could prove very helpful to Mr Cameron, who would find he had a new ally in seeking a rapid treaty change. With Spain on-side, in the current climate, Mr Cameron could attract enough support to get his own treaty changes through the system in time for a 2017 referendum.
And there would be the ultimate irony, if the unintended effect of the Paris shootings were to smooth the way for Mr Cameron's new treaty, which ultimately kept the UK in the European Union.
