From Schengen to Shëngjin

By Georgi Gotev

The title sounds like an advertisement for trekking in China. Schengen is a village in Luxembourg, and Shëngjin is a coastal town in Albania, but they do have something in common, besides their exotic names.

One of the EU's biggest projects, the freedom of movement through the abolition of internal borders, was launched in 1985 in a village situated at the banks of the Moselle River, the border triangle of Luxembourg, Germany and France.

The village where it was signed was so small that it had no proper city hall, and the treaty that led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area was signed on a riverboat.

The first signatories were only five countries, the Benelux states: Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, plus France and Germany. The success of the border-free area was so big that the initiative gradually expanded, and in 1995, what had started as an intergovernmental initiative became incorporated as the EU acquis.

But when the member countries, including non-EU members Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, were happily removing borders their internal borders and border controls, something unbelievable happened. They forgot about the common external borders!

With hindsight, had resources from the internal borders moved to external borders and had Frontex become a real EU border guard service (instead of just supporting member states in their efforts to protect external borders), things would have been different.

Read our latest news on today's European Council summit meeting

EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday (17 October) for tense and difficult talks on the bloc's management of migration.

The heads of government from Denmark, Finland and Sweden told the press before a European Council summit meeting on Thursday (17 October), that they backed Polish plans to close access to asylum seekers in case of increased pressure on the border with Belarus.

EU leaders to discuss Ukraine ‘victory plan’ with Zelenskyy amid worries of negotiation push, they are also expected to discuss the EU’s €35 billion loan to Ukraine and “winterisation efforts.”

In other news

EU Politics Decoded: Ursula home alone: member state requests lie in limbo.

According to a draft seen by Euractiv, the EU executive will allow member states to use unspent rural development funds to support farmers, forest owners and SMEs in the food processing industry affected by extreme weather events.

Some 80% of toys sold by third-party sellers on online marketplaces do not meet EU safety standards, according to Toys Industry Europe (TIE), following the publication of a study on Thursday (17 October).

A draft statement by centre-right EU leaders on political priorities to tackle irregular immigration reveals Poland’s previous opposition to implementing the EU's Migration Pact is appearing to soften.

As European Union leaders held their first summit with their Gulf counterparts on Wednesday (16 October), both sides agreed to revive long-stalled trade talks, but disagreements on how to word it prevailed.

The Romanian government approved the creation of a state-run railway company to meet the country's defence needs on Wednesday, bringing the country in line with the EU's new military mobility initiative.

Look out for

The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU will organise in Budapest, Hungary, a conference on 'Shared responsibility, cooperation between the state and religious communities in Europe'.

EPC organises in Brussels, Belgium, a hybrid conference on 'Assessing state-level resilience in a changing environment'.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell participates in the G7 Ministerial meeting on defence in Naples, Italy.

EU ministers meet for an informal meeting of trade ministers, in Budapest, Hungary.

European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis visits Latvia.

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]