National governments are heading for a clash with MEPs over supervision of the European Union’s Schengen zone of border-free travel. 

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The governments are looking to exclude MEPs from decision-making on a new evaluation mechanism for the Schengen area – a move that is likely to trigger legal challenges from both the European Commission and the Parliament.

An EU official in Brussels said that it would be “the biggest clash between Parliament and Council since the Lisbon treaty”.

Carlos Coelho, a centre-right MEP from Portugal, is the Parliament’s rapporteur on the proposal for an evaluation mechanism that would assess how member states implement the Schengen rules. Coelho said that the Parliament would launch legal action against the Council if it proceeds with its plan.

Romania is the only one of the 27 member states opposed to the move, but diplomats are confident that when national home affairs ministers meet in Luxembourg today (7 June) Romania will abstain rather than vote against, which would not threaten the unanimity required to change the legal basis of the new evaluation mechanism and so remove the need to obtain the European Parliament’s consent to the draft regulation. The mechanism was proposed by the Commission in a draft regulation last September.

“Romania’s reservation is based on the belief that in June 2011, the Council [of Ministers] asked for a community-centred reform of Schengen governance,” a diplomat said. “In light of recent experience, Romania is not particularly comfortable with an exclusively inter-governmental approach in this area.” Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone has been delayed because of opposition from the Netherlands. It hopes to get the green light for membership after the Dutch general election in September. Diplomats suggest that “massive pressure” is being exerted on Romania not to block the change of legal basis.

Concessions

In an attempt to make the change of legal basis less provocative, the member states have agreed to concessions to both the Parliament and the Commission in the substantive provisions of the regulation. They are prepared to agree that MEPs will be “consulted”, albeit on a voluntary basis, on Schengen matters and that responsibility for individual evaluations will be shared with the Commission. Under the Council’s plan, evaluation panels would be co-chaired by an official from a member state and a Commission representative. At present, evaluations are a purely inter-governmental process, in the form of so-called peer reviews. The Commission’s proposal foresees a leading role for the Commission.

Coelho said that it made “no sense” for the mechanism to remain inter-governmental because that is a recipe for inaction. “It is not working right now, so we need the involvement of European institutions,” he said.

The ministers will also seek to reduce the Commission’s role in deciding emergency measures in cases where a member state loses control over an external Schengen border.

The ministers want the Council of Ministers – not the Commission – to recommend, as a last resort, the temporary re-introduction of border checks in such cases.