Verhofstadt: "No new border controls inside the EU"

ALDE will strongly condemn any attempt to create any additional mechanism and possibilities of making it easier for Member States to re-introduce border checks.  This is one of the messages of the ALDE group to today's European Council summit due to decide over migration and the governance of the Schengen area.

"We would find unacceptable any request from the European Council to reintroduce internal border controls via the back door of Schengen's temporary protection mechanism, even as a last resort," stated ALDE President Guy Verhofstadt, who added:"The Commission should resist any such request which would contradict the very spirit of the Treaties."

"It is not by allowing a temporary reintroduction of internal border controls that we will solve what ultimately has been the result of Member States' failure, such as their lack of solidarity in dealing with migratory flows or their years of reluctance towards a European asylum and migration policy. The EU must not return to closed off national borders when free movement is an established, tangible and much appreciated reality."