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New EU Border Control Measures

EU leaders agreed to tighten migration safeguards, including potentially reintroducing border controls between states, in a controversial response to an influx of migrants fleeing North Africa’s upheaval.

The proposals clear the way for border controls between member states to be reintroduced in cases when a government fails to sufficiently protect the bloc’s external frontiers from an influx of immigrants. The push for new rules is unlikely to bring tight limits on free movement of people, but it underlines growing hostility towards immigration and concerns over unrestricted travel in parts of Europe.

Citizens of all 27 EU states are generally allowed to travel freely throughout the bloc. Twenty-two EU states and three non-members have gone further, eliminating border controls between them entirely under the Schengen agreement, named for a village in Luxembourg where the pact was signed in 1985.

Speaking after the summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that without reforms Europe’s Schengen zone would be damaged by unilateral moves by EU states. “I have been very pleased that we took that step, because I really value Schengen and I insisted that if Schengen was not reformed then there was a risk that it could disappear,” he said.

Source: Athensnews

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