On France Culture – Homeland Security: “No terrorist has ever been arrested at any border”

While the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has proposed to narrow Schengen, the issue of internal security, a few days before the European elections, is a key issue. Yves Bertoncini, President of the European Movement – France was invited to the program “Du Grain à Moudre”, on France Culture, alongside Pierre Berthelet, doctor of law and Abdelasiem El Difraoui ,political scientist to discuss the issue.

Can the restoration of border controls in France really be justified by the fight against terrorism?

While the attacks of 13 November 2015 were cited as the reason for the restoration of border controls in France, Yves Bertoncini recalled that “the safeguard clause had already been invoked by France before 13 November”. He pointed out that this was a Schengen measure that States could put in place “when something extraordinary happens in their country and they temporarily want to resume more systematic control at their national borders”.

Nevertheless, the President of the European Movement – France was pleased that these controls were not automatically applied in practice since this would “bother several thousand border residents and road hauliers”. For him, this is a measure taken more for reasons related to migratory flows than to terrorism, especially since “no terrorist has ever been arrested at any border”, he recalled.

There is “a European consensus on external borders”

While European leaders are opposed on migration issues, Yves Bertoncini stressed that there is “a European consensus on external borders“. According to him, it is at the external borders that European cooperation must be increased “not only for terrorism, but also for immigration management”.

Yves Bertoncini confirmed that Member States can restore controls at their internal borders, but he wondered: “why don’t they do it? Because it would put tens, hundreds of thousands of Europeans at risk, it’s political communication”. The President of the European Movement – France recalled in particular that more than 350,000 border residents enter France every day.

That said, Yves Bertoncini explained that security must still be strengthened: “Let us control terrorists wherever they are”. He stressed that Schengen organises police and judicial cooperation in the field of intelligence: “it is on this that we must focus and not on a myth of the return of controls at national borders”.

Should Schengen be shrunk?

If the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has considered the narrowing of the Schengen area, it is to extract from it those countries that do not wish to share the rights and duties that membership of the Schengen area implies, according to the President of the European Movement – France.

Indeed, Yves Bertoncini explains that Schengen must allow immigration management at European level: “asylum seekers must be distributed among the Member States because they do not come to Italy or Greece, but to Europe”. However, the narrowing of the Schengen area is not the solution for the President of the European Movement – France, who sees in it above all the desire to “make a smaller Europe that would be a larger France”.

What proposals to strengthen European security?

First of all, the President of the European Movement – France recalled that the security of the European Union had improved. However, if there was an admission of failure to be made, “it would be that of the Member States because it is up to them to share their sovereignty, which they are reluctant to do”.

For him, the European FBI, proposed in particular by the European Movement, would be the ideal solution. But he explained that above all, this required “sufficient trust between the 28 countries of the European Union, and we are starting from very far away”.

However, he explained that the fight was starting in our country and called for “not to take Europe and the Schengen area as a scapegoat”.

He concluded by recalling the need to find the right balance between freedom and security in a much more dangerous situation than before: “Security is the new mobilising horizon and it requires a review in part, and only in part because we remain the continent of freedom, the balance between freedom and security”.