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LAN Nice poster against Fortress Europe and Nice |
One of the first steps towards the creation of Fortress Europe was the Schengen Agreement which was originally signed in 1985 by five EU states (France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) to eliminate border control between those countries and to establish a common visa policy. The agreement was said to be about the freedom of movement over the internal borders between the Schengen countries however in order to "compensate" for increased freedom of movement within the Schengen area, much of the agreement was about increased control of travellers coming in. Common rules regarding visas, asylum rights and checks at external borders were adopted and coordination of the police, customs and the judiciary was increased. In fact while just four articles in the convention are about open borders, 138 are about increased control (1). Little by little the Schengen area has been extended to include almost every Member State, with the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
As part of the "compensatory measures" of the Schengen agreement, designed to negate the freedom of travel within the Schengen area, the Schengen Information System (SIS) was set up. This vast database system, housed in Strasburg, is comprised of records on people's identities as well as lost or stolen objects, which are entered by Schengen member states and which are then accessed by the other state agencies. At the end of 2001 there were 10,541,271 records held on the SIS (2). A large number of the people listed in the SIS files so far have been asylum seekers.
In May 1999, the Schengen agreement was incorporated within the legal and institutional framework of the EU in the Treaty of Amsterdam. This treaty sought to regularise the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees trying to gain entry to all European states and required the European Council to adopt legislation in several key asylum and immigration related areas by May, 2004. The Treaty of Amsterdam was also the first time that refugees and asylum seekers were specifically criminalised - this position has continued from the EU, governments and the media where asylum seekers are termed 'illegal immigrants' and roped in with child pornography, stolen vehicles, terrorism, counter fitting and drug offences.
Subsequent EU summits on asylum and immigration, such as in Tampere and recently in Seville, have attempted to come to agreements on common EU immigration and asylum law before the deadline in 2004. At these summits agreements have been made which generally make it increasingly difficult and dangerous for refugees and asylum seekers to gain entry to the EU and which increase cooperation on the surveillance, harassment and deportation of "illegal" immigrants.
For example, one EU policy is the containment of refugees and migrants within their home regions, regardless of the human cost. One of the strategies to achieve this has been to target migrants' country of origin and force their governments to cooperate in "migrant management". For example, in the recent EU summit in Seville it was agreed that in future all EU agreements with non-EU states are to: "include a clause on joint management of migration flows and on compulsory readmission in the event of illegal immigration" (para.33). This is to include those who are "unlawfully present" in the EU, eg: own nationals of the third country and people who may have passed through the third country in transit. "In the event" that there is an: "unjustified lack of cooperation" in joint management of migration flows, the EU may apply direct pressure through agreements on trade, aid and assistance coupled with political and diplomatic sanctions.(3)
Other steps taken to make it as difficult as possible for migrants to enter EU countries have been the drive towards increased security at external borders. At the Seville summit it was agreed to establish, possibly within the next five years, an EU border police force (to be called the European Union Corps of Border Guards) to patrol shores, ports and crossing points against 'illegal' immigrants. This EU police force would have its own uniform and badge and be drawn from all 15 member states. As a step towards this, cooperation among the police and immigration units of member states is to be increased immediately with the creation of a special unit of heads of border control from member states and the setting up of a network of liaison officers.
Thousands of people have died so far because of EU policies such as these. According to UNITED, a European anti-racist network, more than 2000 refugees and migrants have died in and around Europe since 1993 as a result of European refugee policies. Details of the 2042 cases are available from their website (http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/List.htm).
With regards EU asylum and immigration policy inside the EU, the focus has been on increased surveillance, racist harassment and control. The 1988 "Strategy Paper on Asylum and Immigration Policy" presented by the then Austrian EU presidency stated that control must cover "every step taken by a third country national from the time he begins his journey to the time he reaches his destination". The paper outlines clearly the extent to which non-EU nationals are to be harassed and spied upon, it recommends "security nets in areas whose geographic or transport characteristics mean that they are particularly exposed, spot checks in the hinterland, unprompted by suspicion, and intensive cooperation on the part of the authorities beyond the sphere of competence of the individual State".
Increasingly draconian measures are being taken to increase police powers of surveillance. Since S11 there has been a drive to extend the Schengen Information System and set up two new databases one dealing specifically with protesters and the other dealing with 'foreigners'. The aim is to facilitate the removal of third country nationals who have not left the EU with the "prescribed time frame". This database would be in effect a register of all third country nationals in the EU who will be tagged with an "alert" if they overstay their visa or residence permit.
It is EU policy to treat asylum seekers and refugees as criminals. For example, in 2000 the proposal for a system for the identification of asylum seekers (EURODAC) which involves taking and comparing fingerprints of asylum-seekers, was formally adopted by the European Council.
No matter how tight controls at EU borders are, immigration to the EU is inevitable and people fleeing persecution, war and poverty, will continue to risk their lives trying to get into the EU zone. However, by maintaining strict control over migration into the EU and by turning down the vast majority of asylum requests, thousands of immigrants are forced to live in Europe illegally. This creates a workforce that will accept the most insecure working conditions together with the worst salaries and conditions. Entire sections of the EU economy base their profits on the exploitation of these people: building companies, restaurants, textiles, agriculture, etc. Illegal workers are a workforce that can be easily controlled and which, against their will, can put pressure on fellow insecure workers. Where immigrants are granted work permits, they are often on short term contracts, with their work permits held by their employers, so they can be subjected to super-exploitation.
Fortress Europe has other advantages for the European bosses. It acts as a wall, keeping people into the areas of the world where working conditions, humans rights etc are poor. Although the European bosses do not want to allow immigrants to enter Europe they do want access to these same people as cheap labour. For example, the EU is continuing the exploitation of the people of North Africa through creating a special trade zone of some of the North African countries similar to the free trades zones North America has created in Mexico. In Ireland this has been most visible with 'Fruit of the Loom' closing plants in the north west of Ireland and opening new plants in Morocco where workers are paid one seventh of what the (low paid) Irish workers were paid.
Finally, racist EU policies and propaganda which marginalise immigrants and portray them as a social, political and economic threats create useful scapegoats for European bosses.
One of the big changes that the Nice Treaty attempts to introduce is way decisions are made within the EU. Key areas of decision making which are currently agreed on by unanimity (so a particular member state could veto the decision if it so wished) will change to qualified majority voting. The 'qualified majority' referred to are the new, complex voting rules that will in effect allow the powerful countries of Italy, France, Germany and Britain to have a much greater say in what decisions are made than the smaller ones and remove the ability of a state to veto the decision. This means, for example, that changes could be forced on the populations of individual countries where there is strong opposition to such change.
One of the provisions which will change from unanimity to qualified-majority voting, and which is relevant to Fortress Europe is the provision on the "economic, financial and technical cooperation with third countries" (Article 181a). If the Nice treaty is passed, decisions to, for example, impose sanctions on third world countries if they refused to cooperate with "migrant management", would have to be accepted by all member states if the European Council agreed on it.
Other changes relevant to asylum seekers and refugees which would be introduced by the Nice Treaty is the extension of police and judicial powers. See article: http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/ireland/nice/analysis/police.html
Deirdre Hogan (Sept 2002)
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LAN Nice poster against Fortress Europe and Nice |
(2) "SIS II takes ominous shape " http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/apr/01sis.htm
(3) "EU Presidency Conclusions at the Seville European Council 21/22 June" http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/jun/14seville.htm