Luxembourg, Oct 13 (AFP) The EU called today for a "quickcompromise" between countries pushing to extend checks on theinternal borders of Europe's passport-free zone and thoseafraid such a move would kill off European unity and freedom.
Interior ministers from France, Germany and several othercountries said checks within the Schengen zone, firstintroduced tot tackle Europe's migrant crisis, are stillneeded to deal with terrorist threats.
However, Slovakia said the border checks, firstintroduced as the migrant crisis peaked in 2015, were notneeded for security and warned of undermining Schengen'sfreedoms.
"The proposed changes in the Schengen borders code willmake Schengen stronger and more resilient," European homeaffairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a pressconference after talks with the ministers in Luxembourg.
They will allow "member states to respond to securitythreats when needed while maintaining the essence of freemovement of goods, people and services," he added.
"I reiterated to ministers today the need for a quickcompromise on this issue," the Greek commissioner said.
However, a European diplomat told AFP that bridging thedivide will take at least a year. Another diplomat said that,besides Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland opposedprolonging checks.
The proposed change is "more political than aprofessional one," Slovak interior minister Robert Kalinaktold reporters, adding there was no information that recentattacks were committed by people crossing Schengen borders.
The countries seeking longer border checks are France,Germany, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and non-EU Norway. All butFrance, which was hard hit by terrorist attacks, introducedthe checks initially to control migration.
The European Commission, the executive branch of the 28-nation EU, had said several times in the last few months thatthe extensions must end in November as the migration crisiswas easing.
The EU has sharply slowed arrivals of asylum seekers andmigrants through closer cooperation with Turkey and Libya,gateways from the Middle East and Africa.
But in recent weeks, France, Germany and other countriesnotified the commission they would extend the checks foranother six months beyond November for security reasons,citing current rules.
Countries in the 26-country Schengen travel area, 22 ofthem EU members, can currently reintroduce frontier checks forsix months for security reasons, and two years if that iscombined with a threat to borders such as Europe's migrationcrisis.
The Commission last month released plans to allowSchengen countries to reintroduce border controls for securityreasons for up to three years. (AFP)RB.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.