BRUSSELS. Coronavirus, not only synonymous with the health crisis but also with the existential crisis of the EU. In the name of safety and public health, free movement at the heart of the Union has literally gone haywire, with excessive controls, not notified in Brussels, poorly coordinated between Member States. The European Court of Auditors notes all twelve-star dysfunctions during one of the most delicate moments in recent history. A special report that points the finger at the EU executive, which has also done its utmost to avoid closures and suspensions of the Schengen area, that of freedom of movement. But in the chaos of the pandemic, Brussels “oversight of internal border controls was limited”, with the result that every Member State practically did what it wanted.
From a legal point of view, the Schengen legislation provides that internal border controls, therefore between one member country and another, are proportionate and a measure of last resort, with the European Commission which, as guardian of the Treaties, remains responsible for monitoring compliance with EU legislation in the context of these checks. Rose water checks, however, as Luxembourg auditors argue that the Commission “did not exercise adequate control” to make sure internal border controls were compliant with Schengen free movement legislation. According to the Court of Auditors of the EU, the notifications relating to internal border controls by the Member States “were not accompanied by sufficient evidence to certify that the controls constituted a measure of last resort, were proportionate and had a limited duration”. Furthermore, Member States ‘not always’ notified the new border controls to the Commission. Furthermore, when the national authorities notify Brussels of the measures taken at the border, the reports “did not contain sufficient information”.
The EU blackout from confinement has therefore also translated into a suspension of the rules underlying the functioning of the Union itself. However, it should be remembered that the EU found itself unprepared for an unprecedented situation. At a time of great confusion, the EU executive worked above all to ensure the functioning of the single market for goods, with the creation of special preferential lanes (known as “green lanes”) to ensure that at least supermarket and pharmacy shelves, unique seats open to the public at the time of the general lockdown, were stocked. The freedom of movement of people has therefore taken a back seat, with the von der Leyen team engaged as it was before to act as the control room for the sharing and distribution to the Member States of masks, medical-health material, respirators at the moment. of maximum health emergency, and then to negotiate vaccines with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of the Twenty-seven.
A situation so frenetic that “since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission has neither requested additional information from the Member States nor issued any opinion on border controls”. Excluding a situation that can also explain the findings of the auditors, what happened in any case is not good. “Considering that the free movement of persons is one of the four fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the EU and has been at the heart of the European project since its creation, the Commission should have carefully checked that the restrictions introduced at the time of COVID were all relevant and justified” , criticizes Baudilio Tomé Muguruza, the member of the EU Court of Auditors responsible for the report. Hence the three recommendations for the Community executive: to exercise “rigorous” control over internal border controls, to streamline the collection of data on travel restrictions, to provide more workable guidelines on the execution of internal border controls.