The consequences of the Arab Spring
The Arab Spring caused a wave of fear to sweep across the Schengen zone Member States. With war spreading across a neighbouring area, a flow of refugees seemed inevitable. Once an emigrant crosses the external borders, they have complete access to the zone of free movement: they could go anywhere. That, added to the Roma issue, forced European countries to react. In May 2011, the European Commission issued a proposal to restore the internal borders. If this proved unfeasible, there was also talk of strengthening the customs posts.
This difficult decision involves a number of challenging factors, the most provoking of which is that it would require simultaneous multilateral action from every single Member State. Therefore, the European Commission organized a meeting to clarify the subject. But, on the eve of this meeting, Denmark independently decided to implement the scheme. As the Danish Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said, Denmark was in favour of reintroducing customs controls on their borders. Principally, they wanted to strengthen the borders with Germany and Sweden. This idea was suggested by the extremist right party, PPD, to fight against illegal immigration and organized crime.
As Denmark has shown, the consequences of the Arab Spring and the wave of fear generated present a heaven-sent opportunity for the far-right parties in the European Union: it gives them a chance to increase their influence over the general population. But, thankfully, there's still hope! In the recent (September) elections in Denmark, the new government chose to remove the border controls. Good for Schengen.
It's obvious that all these issues are linked to the situation in Bulgaria and Romania. Technically, these countries are perfectly placed for entry into the Schengen zone. Once again, the only thing in the way is fear. The Member States of the European Union are afraid that, once they enter, the immigration routes will shift from Greece to Bulgaria and Romania. But one thing is for sure: It's not by closing borders and locking the problem outside that Europe's immigration issues will be solved.
Politique
République de Macédoine
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Les indignés de Skopje face à la répression policière
