Meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) about the situation at the internal borders within the Schengen area, in the EP in Brussels. Statements by&nbsp;Laurent MUSCHEL, DG Migration and Home Affairs, Carlos COELHO (EPP, PT), Juan Fernando L&Oacute;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), Christine REVAULT D'ALLONNES BONNEFOY (S&amp;D, FR) and Vicky MAEIJER (ENF, NL)

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Schengen (T2)

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

LÓPEZ AGUILAR, Juan Fernando (S&D, ES)

COELHO, Carlos (EPP, PT)

REVAULT D'ALLONNES BONNEFOY, Christine (S&D, FR)

MAEIJER, Vicky (ENF, NL)

Exchange of views about the situation at the internal borders within the Schengen area: extracts from the meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

External shot of the European Parliament in Brussels.

SOUNDBITE (English) MUSCHEL Laurent, DG Migration and Home Affairs, "The recent cases of reintroduction of checks at internal borders does not mean the end of Schengen, I want to stress that point, it's not the end of Schengen".

SOUNDBITE (English) MUSCHEL Laurent, DG Migration and Home Affairs, "In view of the Commission, the specific situation we are facing, the unique situation that we are facing, can justify such a reintroduction of internal checks."

SOUNDBITE (English) MUSCHEL Laurent, DG Migration and Home Affairs, "If we judge that it (a border control) is not proportionate, we issue the opinion and if we continue to consider that it is not, we might go to the Court but the only tool is the infringement procedure. There's no other tool foreseen under the Schengen border code".

SOUNDBITE (English), Carlos COELHO (EPP, PT), "So, make no mistake, if Schengen is at risk, it is so because member states are threatening Schengen and not refugees".

SOUNDBITE (English), Carlos COELHO (EPP, PT), "Migration and the crossing of external borders by a large number of third country nationals should not <em>per se</em> be considered to be a threat to the public policy or internal security".

SOUNDBITE (English), Juan Fernando L&#211;PEZ AGUILAR (S&amp;D, ES), "This is a crisis about the very idea of the free circulation of people as a component element and, more than that, as a basic pillar of the European project".

SOUNDBITE (French), Christine REVAULT D&apos;ALLONNES BONNEFOY (S&amp;D, FR), "When member states don't comply, that would be taken before court but will that be sufficient? Couldn't we do something stronger? Because we can understand the specific case of Germany and why they have done it (re-introduce border controls) but the fact that now a certain amount of states continue to close their borders is just unacceptable".

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Vicky MAEIJER (ENF, NL), "I think we should all close our borders and, in fact, permanently. And I have two questions to the representative of the Commission: according to the Schengen rules, border controls should never last longer than two months and I think there is no single evidence that this flow will stop by then".

SOUNDBITE (English) MUSCHEL Laurent, DG Migration and Home Affairs,"So far, we do not consider that Germany, Astria or Slovenia have been breaking the rules".

SOUNDBITE (English) MUSCHEL Laurent, DG Migration and Home Affairs,"We have to repare Dublin so that member states don't try to use the Schengen border code to fix a problem which is linked to Dublin".

SOUNDBITE (English) MUSCHEL Laurent, DG Migration and Home Affairs,"What matters is that people accept to be relocated, so we have to do a lot of convincing of these people, that they would benefit form being relocated when they are in Greece and that they should not take the route of the Western Balkans instead. So we will have to do a lot of convincing of these people to stay in the reception centre".