A9: Strengthening and Safeguarding Free Movement within the European Union and the Future of Schengen

Resolution submitted by: JEF Political Commission 2 – Internal European Policy

Adopted by the Federal Committee in Turku on 21 October 2018. Re-adopted by the
online Federal Committee on 26 June 2021. Re-adopted and amended by the Federal
Committee on 11 November 2023 in Madrid Spain. Re-adopted and amended by the
Federal Committee on 19 April 2026 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Free movement of citizens and the Schengen Agreements are two of the proudest
achievements of the European Union. However, limits still exist and challenges
are mounting.

JEF Europe,

● Recognising free movement of persons in the EU as one of the four important
pillars of the Single European Market that constitutes one of the core
achievements of European integration so far;

● Reiterating that the free movement of EU workers is a fundamental principle of
European law enshrined in Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU) and developed by EU secondary legislation, such as
Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 which requires equal treatment with regard to social
advantages, and the Case law of the Court of Justice;

● Noting with appreciation that the Schengen Agreement has led to positive
intercultural exchange, cooperation and contributes to economic development; ●
Noting with concern the growing number of member states that are reintroducing
border controls;

● Further concerned by the reasons EU Member States use to justify the
reintroduction or prolongation of temporary internal border controls still
reflecting crisis-mode policy-making on migration, asylum and borders often
explicitly and erroneously linking the (secondary) movements of migrants to
terrorism;

● Reiterates that the Schengen Area is to be protected and guaranteed and thus
should be separated from negotiations related to external policies and Member
States’ home affairs which lay beyond the scope of articles 25-29 of the
Schengen Border Code;

● Emphasising the crucial necessity for democratic accountability in border
control and Frontex operations, which must be rooted in fundamental EU values,
because protecting the Schengen Area must never serve as a pretext for policies
or practices that do not uphold human rights;

● Stressing the fact that despite the understandable desire to feel secure,
reintroducing border controls does not solve the problem of terrorism, rather,
is detrimental to EU citizens, who cannot take advantage of the free movement
within the Schengen area;

● Noting that, in many cases, the temporary reintroduction of border controls is
transforming into permanent restrictions to the free movement of citizens within
the EU;

● Noticing that the future of Schengen and non-restricted free movement in the
EU has been strongly affected by the inability of EU member states to commonly
manage the external borders and the lack of a united approach to immigration of
non-EU citizens;

● Emphasising the fact that the presence of migration flows is not a crisis, but
a structural fact, that needs longer term, structural solutions;

● Considering that in the European Federation internal borders should only have
administrative value, and internal border controls would have no place in the
Federation;

● Deeply concerned about the construction of border fences which challenges the
very fundamentals of the Schengen Agreement and the European Project as a whole;
● Rejecting the negative and destructive discourse driven by some political
forces and

leaders about the arrival of refugees, and the labelling of free movement as
‘welfare tourism’;

● Regretting the instrumentalisation of problems arising from poor
implementation of the freedom of movement by governments and parties in
different member states; ● Deploring that the freedom of movement and
establishment in another Member State for European citizens is limited by
fragmented rules and missing simplification of procedures, preventing them from
properly asserting their rights;

● Recalling JEF resolution “For a common migration and asylum policy”,
“Promoting Youth Labour Mobility and Tackling Youth Unemployment in Europe”,
“Calling for a fully fledged Health Union for the European Union”, “Advancing
the European Union’s Social Dimension”, “On the creation of a Fiscal Union in
the Eurozone”, “Strengthening European Citizenship Education”, “Patching the
holes in the EU fabric: a federal Switzerland in a federal Europe”.

JEF Europe therefore:

1. Demands the immediate and full re-establishment of the freedom to travel
within the Schengen area without restrictions;

2. Calls upon the Member States to implement a coherent and effective federal
border policy including cooperation in security and information exchange with
adequate financial capacities to achieve their mandate of fully respecting EU
borders and the asylum acquis, as well as the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights;

3. Calls for comprehensive and coherent policies on welfare, asylum, and border
management, and stresses the importance of a holistic, well-coordinated and
human rights-based approach to ensure the security, welfare, and prosperity of
both EU citizens and those seeking refuge within its borders;

4. Asks the Commission, the European Parliament as well as the Member States to
clearly refute common misconceptions about free movement by fully pointing out
already existing possibilities within European law that allow for nuanced
approaches to cross-border migration;

5. Calls for the completion of a fully European Citizenship that allows for
truly free movement within the Union through the seamless portability of social
rights, effectively establishing a single status for all residents instead of a
sum of national citizenships;

6. Demands that all physical walls, fences, and barriers of any sort established
between EU Member States be torn down, noting the negative messages such
obstructions send and the dark connotations of their historical predecessors;

7. Urges European institutions to enforce EU law by opening infringement
procedures against those Member States that abuse the notion of emergency
situation to establish border controls within the Union;

8. Calls for compensatory payments that Member States establishing border
controls should be required to pay to compensate the Union of any economic
losses related to the border controls;

9. Calls for the introduction of strong non-monetary instruments that the
European Commission should use to strictly limit and when necessary formally
oppose unjustified suspensions of internal border controls by Member States
under the Schengen Framework;

10. Demands all EU Institutions to continue to support measures aimed at
improving the access to free movement of people, such as the free movement of
workers and students;

11. Demands that Member States respect the social rights of all citizens who
have the right to freely move within the Union and thus help to concretely
implement and guarantee the European Pillar of Social Rights;

12. Demands that public authorities guarantee that mobile and cross-border
citizens benefit from their welfare and social rights when dealing with lower
local authorities according to the principle of subsidiarity.