Temporary reinstatement of the so-called border controls at the land borders of Germany according to recent press reports. Temporary as formally planned for a duration of approximately six months starting from September 16, 2024. This is the consistency of the communication last sent by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Community to the European Commission. If one were to valorize the old adage according to which nothing would seem (the conditional seems obligatory) more definitive than what appears to be provisional, then, perhaps, someone could also question the current consistency and value of the so-called "Schengen Area" in the context of a European territorial area that, perhaps (the doubtful formula is imposed), on a general perceptual level, at the current state would seem to be headed towards a mutation with respect to its origins.
First of all, because the Schengen area, which in the long years since its introduction has effectively allowed millions of people to move freely between Member States without having to undergo border controls, has until now represented one of the defining achievements of European integration. Then, because, even considering everything, among the priority objectives of the aforementioned Schengen area, there has always been precisely that of offering greater security to the citizens concerned through a more rational and efficient activity of close collaboration between the police forces, customs authorities and the authorities responsible for controls at the external borders of all Member States. Finally, because, even if the temporary application of control measures is effectively a hypothesis contemplated by Article 25 and following of the Schengen Borders Code, however, those same control measures would seem to require specific conditions capable of materialising in the need to guarantee an appreciable level of security in a moment of serious threat (although the very concept of the expression “threat” is not better clarified) to public order. Well. Since this is a measure that, in any case, would remain left to the evaluation of the individual Member State, it would perhaps be idle to question its appropriateness, also taking into account the circumstances that could induce its introduction, such as, by way of example and not exhaustively, the dangers caused by terrorism or the intensification of migratory phenomena also at a European level, at least according to common perception. But, even wanting to consider and believe everything, it would probably be difficult to contradict a further and in some way directly consequential perception: that according to which, under the pressure of forces sometimes centrifugal, sometimes centripetal, a radical transformation of the European system is taking place, or rather of its ideological matrix, which could call into question, even in a not too distant time, its necessity in the terms in which until now we have been accustomed to conceiving it, especially in terms of the principle of cohesion and its substantial implications. To put it another way: in the current state of affairs, does the so-called and once highly coveted federalist goal still make sense, or is there nothing left to do but accept the affirmation, if that is truly the case, albeit in a merely embryonic form, of a different sovereignist ideology?
The distinction is substantial, and the shift in one direction or the other appears likely to trigger very different, if not conflicting, institutional and regulatory paths. Could the reinstatement of temporary border controls in the Schengen area, to put it another way, although legitimately permitted by the same reference legislation in exceptional circumstances, be considered truly representative of a condition of strengthening of the national interest carried out through a progressive weakening of the community policies conducted up to now?
Each potential answer, in one sense or another, to a question of such consistency could indeed mark the next model of Europe: nationalistic or cooperative? What consequences would a choice in one direction or the other have on the general geopolitical level? The intensification of war scenarios would probably require undertaking more intense forms of diplomatic dialogue and cooperation considering that solutions should be sought on the general international level to be truly efficient.
Giuseppina Di Salvatore – Lawyer, Nuoro