EU Court of Auditors in new report: “Commission oversighted border controls during pandemic” | Inland

From March 2020, the EU countries started closing borders with their neighbours, one by one. In the Schengen zone – which includes 22 EU and 4 non-EU countries – such far-reaching border controls are only possible for reasons of public order, safety or health. However, the Member States must formally notify the European Commission, which must then assess whether the restrictions imposed are in accordance with European legislation and do not conflict with the right to free movement of persons.

The Commission has not carefully assessed whether the restrictions introduced in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic were all relevant and justified, the European Court of Auditors now finds.

In total, the auditors examined all 150 notifications of internal border controls submitted between March 2020 and June 2021. Of these, 135 related exclusively to the coronavirus. According to the Court, the notifications did not provide sufficient evidence to show that the border checks were indeed the last resort or were proportionate and of limited duration.

The Commission has also not opened any infringement proceedings for lengthy border controls already in place before the pandemic, in response to the migration crisis or a security threat. In addition, it has not received all the reports that it should have received within four weeks of the end of border controls, and has not requested or advised any additional information.

The Court therefore considers that the Commission has not properly examined whether the reintroduction of internal border controls was in line with Schengen law.

What the Commission did was issue guidelines to ensure that border controls are as coordinated as possible, in order to minimize the impact on cross-border travel. “But those guidelines were not practical or enforceable enough,” says the Court of Auditors. The institution therefore concludes that the travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic remained largely uncoordinated and that the Commission was unable to avoid the emergence of a patchwork of individual measures, which varied widely from Member State to Member State.

No immediate consequences are attached to the critical report of the European Court of Auditors. The researchers do hope that their findings will feed into the ongoing debate on the revision of the Schengen system.