Because it has limited tools at its disposal, the European Commission has not scrutinised enough the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic posed to the right of free movement of people. This is the overall conclusion of a special report published today by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). The supervision of the internal border controls reintroduced by the Member States since March 2020 did not fully safeguard the Schengen rules that facilitate free movement in the EU. In addition, the auditors draw attention to the lack of coordination between Member States’ travel restrictions, as well as inconsistencies with EU guidance and recommendations.

Every EU citizen has the right to move freely within the territory of the EU. This is facilitated by the abolition of internal border controls in the Schengen area, which comprises 22 EU and 4 nonEU countries, and which has created a borderless travel area within Europe. This right can nevertheless be restricted for public policy, security or health reasons. Since 2015, several EU countries have reintroduced internal border controls in response to the migration crisis, or to security threats (mainly terrorism). More recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Member States took measures to restrict freedom of movement within the EU in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. When reintroducing internal border controls in the Schengen area, Member States are required to notify the European Commission, which remains responsible for assessing whether proposed restrictions comply with EU legislation and do not infringe the right of free movement of people.

“Considering that the free movement of people is one of the four fundamental freedoms of the EU and has been at the heart of the European project since its inception, the Commission should have checked carefully that restrictions introduced during the COVID times were all relevant and justified”, said Baudilio Tomé Muguruza, the ECA member responsible for the audit. “We hope that our audit findings will feed into the ongoing debate on the review of the Schengen system.” The auditors reviewed all 150 Member State notifications of internal border controls that were submitted to the European Commission between March 2020 and June 2021, of which 135 related exclusively to COVID-19. Their review clearly shows that notifications did not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the border controls were indeed a measure of last resort, or that they were proportionate and limited in duration. Moreover, the Commission has not launched infringement procedures in respect of long-term border controls that were introduced before the pandemic.

The Special report of The European Court of Auditors in its entirety