Migration and Borders in the EU

By Krišjānis Kariņš, former Prime Minister of Latvia, now Senior Advisor at KREAB Brussels

Since the inception of border-free travel in Europe in 1985, the Schengen area has grown to include 29 countries in Europe. It is one of the basic pillars of European unity and underpins one of the basic values of the European Union (EU): the free movement of people and goods. This freedom is currently being challenged like never before. If united action is not taken, the benefits of free movement that EU citizens now enjoy will start to slowly erode with numerous negative consequences.

It is not so long ago that most Europeans had to pass through serious border control checkpoints with their passports to move from one country to another. I recall how in the late 1990’s my frozen foods distribution company in Latvia had to file papers and undergo physical checks at our borders with Lithuania and Estonia in order to do business. That cost time and money. Today, most of the physical checkpoints are long gone and individuals and companies move seamlessly from country to country. However, all of this is starting to change.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2020 and early 2021, governments in Europe and around the world understood that in order to protect lives, people’s free movement had to be temporarily severely restricted. The reason was simple: the virus is transmitted easily and in the beginning, the virus was very lethal and there was no group immunity to the new disease. This also led to stringent controls at national borders, which for a time had the unintended consequence of restricting vital trans-border trade, such as in medications. As vaccines became available and immunity in the population increased, governments lifted restrictions as quickly as was deemed safe. Of course, many people came to resent these restrictions (as well as the vaccination itself), which has become one of the drivers of anti-establishment populist movements throughout Europe.

In 2015, Europe experienced a massive influx of migrants as a result of wars in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The reaction in the EU was varied: Hungary’s Prime minister Orban, for example, constructed a physical barrier to keep migrants from crossing the border, while Germany’s Chancellor Merkel accepted more than a million migrants in one year alone. If Viktor Orban was an “outlier” in 2015, over time more and more Europeans have come to resent what is perceived as “too many” migrants. As a result, practically all mainstream political parties in Europe today, both of the center-left and center-right, now speak of the need to restrict illegal migration.

Starting in July of 2021, migrants were “weaponised” as part of a new hybrid warfare by Belarus, which organised the flow of migrants from various countries in the Middle East to attempt to illegally cross the outer border of the EU via Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. As a result, all three EU countries constructed physical barriers and introduced novel protocols to counter this new form of attack by a non-EU neighbouring country.

As the Covid-19 pandemic eased, travel that had been pent up during the pandemic opened up and has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels in Europe. There has also been a parallel increase of illegal migration once again coming into Europe. Unsurprisingly, European governments have reacted to counter this trend. It is especially noteworthy that Germany, the country that opened up fully to migrants in 2015, has reintroduced checks at its outer borders for security reasons. This is a direct result of popular pressure. And Germany is not alone: Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, and Norway have also reintroduced some level of (temporary) border control.

It is reasonable to assume that migration pressure in the EU will not let up in the foreseeable future. If anything, poverty, wars, and climate change in the Middle East and Africa will only increase the motivation of people to leave in search of a better life. As a wealthy continent with great individual freedoms, we are an attractive goal for many indeed.

Regarding migration, the EU has only two choices in the direction it can take. The first is to allow the Schengen area to erode piece by piece, which could eventually lead to renewed hard borders throughout the continent. The other option would be to re-think the role of Frontex (the EU border and coast guard agency) and implement and strengthen the EU pact on migration and asylum, which was adopted this year. The outer borders of the EU can be effectively controlled: Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have all significantly restricted the ability of people to cross the EU outer border illegally. In effect, they have relieved migration pressures on countries such as Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, which are often the end goal of arrivals on account of their wealth and generous welfare systems. To better control migration, an additional step to professional (outer) border control is needed: a way for potential migrants to legally register for migration and go through checks without having to physically come to an outer border of the EU.

If the EU does not find a way to truly control migration at its outer borders, then the only alternative for Member states will be to increase internal controls. This is already happening. As we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic, hard internal border controls greatly harm trans-border trade, and thus the economy of the EU. If internal border controls that have been introduced persist and expand, the Schengen area will eventually cease to exist as we know it and one of the great benefits of the EU – the free movement of people and goods – will become a thing of the past. The EU does not really have a choice. In order to preserve the Schengen area and the free movement of people within the EU, all outer borders must be controlled effectively.