France reintroduces EU border controls
France has reintroduced border controls with its EU neighbors in response to perceived threats after last week’s terrorist attacks in London that killed at least 52 people. To authorize the controls, France on 8 July activated a clause in the Schengen agreement that allows EU countries to implement or remove controls over their common borders. “If we don’t reinforce border controls when around 50 people die in London, I don’t know when I would do it,” French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels on Wednesday. France has used the clause in the past, mainly for major sporting and political events, but Sarkozy said it was activated this time in response to the London bombings. Following the move by France, Italy’s Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu announced that his country would be reinforcing its old border zones with Austria and Slovenia, the Efe news agency reported. In June 1985, in the small Luxembourg town of Schengen, seven EU countries signed a treaty to end internal border checkpoints and controls. More countries have joined the treaty over the past years. At present, there are 15 Schengen countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. All are EU members except for Norway and Iceland.
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