THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France has threatened to abandon European Union freedom of movement by “suspending” Europe’s Schengen Treaty due to an influx of Tunisian and Libyan migrants from Italy.
Italy has given up to 26,000 illegal migrants six-month residence permits, allowing them to travel freely in the border-free Schengen zone, which covers all EU countries except Britain and Ireland.
The decision to issue travel documents to the Tunisians and other Arab migrants has triggered a French warning over the 1995 treaty.
''It seems to us that we need to think about a mechanism that would allow us, when there is a systematic disruption at one of the EU’s external borders, to intervene with a temporary suspension for as long as the disruption lasts,” said an Elysée source. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Friday, April 22, 2011
