The Schengen agreement and the current migrant-sharing mechanism are deeply flawed and need urgent fixing, French President Emmanuel Macron has said. Europe must “have borders” even if it means a smaller Schengen zone, he said.
In the first major press conference since the Yellow Vest movement took off in November, Macron unveiled a range of policy measures to placate the protesters, including a proposed overhaul of the European-wide migration policy and the Schengen agreement.
The embattled French leader argued that the agreement that guarantees free movement across the Schengen area, while “wonderful,” does not work anymore.
The same, he said, applies to the Dublin Regulation that determines which EU member-state is responsible for accepting asylum seekers. Under the current version of the agreement, which came into force in 2013 and applies to all EU member-states except Denmark, the main criteria for determining responsibility is the first point of entry.
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