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Abstract
This contribution focuses on the European Parliament (EP) as an actor in European Union (EU) border policies. It situates the Parliament in the dynamics of the Schengen project and discusses the distinct role it plays therein, as well as its impact thereon. The article argues that the EP managed to establish itself, years before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, as a credible actor in border policies able to bring the citizens’ perspective into EU border policies. With its keen interest in the Schengen area as an area in which citizens can move freely without being subject to border controls, and with its focus on fundamental rights, it played, and continues to do so, a role in ensuring that “Schengen works”. The article presents its powers and the interplay with the other EU institutions, mainly on the basis of a number of key examples.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Anita Bultena, Hélène Calers, Michael Cashman, Emilio de Capitani, Sandra Nunes, and Lotte Tittor for comments on earlier versions of this Article. In preparing this work I have benefited to a great extend from my experience as Parliament official. The views expressed remain, however, strictly personal and do not necessarily reflect the position of the EP.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Katrin Huber works as an administrator in the secretariat of the EP’s LIBE Committee. She has previously worked in the secretariats of the Committee on Transport and Tourism as well as of the Conciliation Committee. In the first semester of 2012, she was EU Fellow at the European University Institute.
Notes
1. The Schengen area is distinct from the EU: some EU Members do not participate in the free movement aspects of Schengen (UK, Ireland) or are not yet able to lift internal border controls (Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia), while some non-EU countries participate (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Lichtenstein).
2. For a complete list of measures, see Annex II of the act of accession of Croatia to the EU, OJ L 112, 24 April 2012.
3. Joseph Daul in the plenary debate on 12 June 2012. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes of EP Members or representatives of other institutions are from parliamentary debates, which can be found by searching using the date at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/debates.html.
4. “Border policies” are understood as those referred to in Article 77 TFEU, i.e. mainly measures concerning visa policy, external border control, integrated border management, and the absence of controls at internal borders.
5. For an analysis regarding irregular migration and asylum, see Lopatin (Citation2013). For a general account of the Parliament’s role in this policy area, see De Capitani (Citation2010). For behavioural changes in LIBE, see Ripoll Servent (Citation2012).
6. This article takes developments until the end of March 2014 into account.
7. For an overview, see De Capitani (Citation2012).
8. For a detailed presentation of the integration of the Schengen acquis in legal terms, see Peers (Citation2011, pp. 36–41).
9. For a detailed legal analysis, see Corrado (Citation1999).
10. For the dysfunctionality of the Schengen intergovernmental decision-making rules, see Kunnert (Citation2009, p. 223).
11. See also Article 10(2) of the EU Treaty according to which “[c]itizens are directly represented at Union level in the European Parliament”.
12. The programme is available from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/20050330/libe/programme_en.pdf
13. The amendments of the other Members are available here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/am/563/563299/563299en.pdf
14. The practice today is very different as generally a committee vote is required before entering into negotiations. See rule 70 of Parliament’s rules of procedure.
15. The practice today is very different as the shadow rapporteurs are equally present.
16. For the involvement of the EP in SIS II, see Brouwer (Citation2008, pp. 90–93).
17. See Pascouau (Citation2012) for a development of this point and for a detailed description of the background of the reform of the Schengen rules.
18. See the fourth citation of European Parliament (Citation2013a).
19. The programme of the hearing is available from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/libe/events.html?action=1&id=hearings#menuzone
20. For a general reflection about the factors influencing Parliament's impact under codecision, see Huber (Citation2015).