Macron wants to apply the principle of non-admission of migrants

According to information from Europe 1, Emmanuel Macron wants to apply the principle of non-admission to the interior of the Schengen area. After the migration crisis in Belarus and Wednesday’s tragedy in the Channel, Emmanuel Macron plans to go further on migration issues. After having halved visas for the Maghreb a month ago, the president himself said it in private a few days ago: it is not enough, not efficient enough. Especially since the intermediate figures for expulsions are frankly bad.

What does the non-admission of migrants mean?

This time, Emmanuel Macron wants to tackle the reform of the Schengen area for good, as part of the French presidency of the EU next January. According to our information, he should make this proposal around December 8, along with other countries like Germany, to the European Commission and to Parliament.

It’s a real break. Concretely, he wants to propose to introduce the principle of non-admission even within the borders of the European Union. Non-admission means considering that any migrant arrested in EU countries, along internal borders, is considered to have never set foot there. This had been experienced in 2015 in the Alpes-Maritimes and at the time, any migrant arrested in an area of ​​20 km inside French territory on the Franco-Italian border was considered to have never been in France. They were deported to Italy.

A very political measure

It also means a reintroduction of systematic border controls within the European Union to, of course, guarantee the free movement of Europeans, but filter and prevent migrants from settling. With the objective, in the long term, that the countries which hold the borders of the EU – the countries of Eastern Europe and Italy – are forced to better monitor them. With the help of Frontex which should be reinforced.

A measure which, in the strong words of a close friend of the president, might have made it possible to avoid the Nice attack. A project which, if it sees the light of day, is also very political, since it has been demanded for years by the right.

To achieve this, the Head of State must unite the unanimity of the countries of the European Union. But this is already a real break for the president, he who was resolutely opposed to it a few months ago.