A few days before the implementation of agreements signed in Schengen In 1985, Jean-Michel Demetz analyzed the scope of this turning point for France: “For an old country raised in the religion of the ‘natural borders’ and vatting on their defense, the event is historic”. He described the nervousness of the Minister of the Interior, Charles Pasqua, as for the implementation of this new freedom of movement and took as an example Schipol airport, “hub of all traffic”. Faced with these reluctance, he wondered about the future role of borders for a continent in full mutation: “With Can the continuous development of exchanges in Europe, the border still have any other meaning than symbolic? “In 2025, the Schengen space has 29 members: 25 of the 27 countries of the European Union and 4 associated states.
In the Express of March 23, 1995
Farewell to the borders
Under the portrait of Beatrix, his queen, Major JC Ossoren, of the royal marshal of the Netherlands, awaits with a placidity all Dutch the reinforcements. 80 new agents will arrive by March 26, the entry day of the Schengen agreement. On this date, the officer responsible for immigration to Schiphol, Amsterdam airport, will no longer be an accountant of the only border security in the kingdom, but also that of the 6 other European countries which have ratified the Convention.
Signed in June 1985, it provides, in fact, the free movement of people (all nationalities combined) within the space today constituted by France, the 3 states of Benelux, Germany, Spain and Portugal. Thus, an Angolan disembarking in Amsterdam to then win Paris, by land or by the air, will only be checked once – upon arrival in the Netherlands. France will therefore only keep its land borders with Switzerland and Italy. And it is the German customs officials or the Iberian peninsula who will watch for her on the Oder-Neisse or in Gibraltar, facing Eastern Europe or the Maghreb.
For an old country brought up in the religion of “natural borders” and convertible on their defense, the event is historic. However, neither in Schiphol nor at the other border crossing points, we will particularly celebrate the event on March 26. And the project, for a caressed moment, to walk on the same plane, from one country to another, from the ministers of the 7 countries, to prove that the era of controls was well over, was abandoned.
First, because the interior ministers of the seven, inheriting an agreement initiated by their colleagues in European affairs, are more warm than the latter and sometimes even frankly nervous before its application. Charles Pasqua, although he ratified the Convention in 1990, has never made a mystery of his lack of enthusiasm for this partial dismantling of the controls. But it is perhaps also the prospect of a stopover in Schiphol that has cooled excellence. Because the airport, which already drags a detestable image of a hub for all traffic, will not be ready before the end of the year to make a rigorous sorting between travelers in the “Schengen zone”, citizens of the rest of the European Union and the others.
While waiting for December, we had to find an arrangement. Rather than keeping controls (as in Marseille-Marignane), the airport authorities have reserved for passengers in the Schengen area of magnetic card turnstiles which allow them to pass freely. But this procedure allows all diversions. Nothing prevents this card from a accomplice who would like to escape any identity verification and go to yourself, with its passport, to go to the ordinary police station: “Schiphol is a link in the chain that has already jumped”, denounces an adviser from Charles Pasqua. And to question: “How could we have accepted such an absence of guarantees in such a sensitive airport?” But, with the continuous boom in exchanges in Europe, can the border still have any other meaning than symbolic?
Austria, Austria, the next candidate for the “Schengen club” has been ten days ago, wanted to test the application of the agreement which provides for a strict reinforcement of the Union’s external border controls. At the Nickelsdorf position, on the busiest road axis between Budapest and Vienne, customs officials systematically verified documents and luggage. The barely committed operation, nine -hour queues have been formed. Conclusive test.