Some Schengen countries have resumed checks at internal European borders. They say it's necessary, given the ongoing migration crisis facing the EU. But what will this mean for Romania and Bulgaria, who have been waiting to join the Schengen Area more than 15 years?
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00:00 Some countries within the borderless Schengen area are stepping up checks on their frontiers.
00:07 Yet one of the main principles of the Schengen Agreement is freedom of movement of citizens.
00:11 There are clauses that provide for the temporary restoration of border controls,
00:15 primarily when it concerns a threat to public order or internal security.
00:20 And so far in 2023, at least seven Schengen states have taken advantage of these provisions.
00:25 So is the treaty working as hoped?
00:28 What we are seeing now is yet another example of the fragility of the Schengen borderless area.
00:37 And this is for a number of reasons.
00:40 There are political reasons that have to do with upcoming elections at the local and national level,
00:46 which have put central governments under pressure.
00:50 They also have to do with additional arrivals, especially in southern European countries,
00:55 and the possibility of further secondary movements to northern European countries
01:00 that have seen an uptake in first-time asylum applications in recent months.
01:06 Germany calls the resumption of border checks with Poland and the Czech Republic
01:13 one of the options for combating human traffickers.
01:16 Slovenia is also stepping up surveillance of its border crossing with Croatia,
01:22 which recently joined the Schengen area.
01:25 It is often just a matter of spot checks.
01:29 They check some of the people that cross, but it is not really a full reintroduction of internal borders as such.
01:35 It is a symbolic measure for the domestic public,
01:38 and as such, probably it is not as important as some politicians would want it to be.
01:44 But the Schengen system on its own is fine.
01:47 (whooshing)