246 Unterschriften
Petition richtet sich an: Member States of the Schengen area
In 2025, the 40th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement, we are witnessing alarming developments: unilateral national actions - such as unlawful border controls and pushbacks - are threatening the very core of European unity. The German government is prolonging and intensifying stationary controls at the internal borders of the Schengen area, thus attacking free movement - one of the European Union’s greatest achievements. But Germany is not alone: Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Slovenia, France, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands are also implementing internal border controls to varying degrees.
We are the Europe Generation. We grew up with open borders. For us, mobility is not a luxury but part of everyday life. Freedom is not a privilege, it is a fundamental right. Our European identity is not an abstract value, but a lived reality!
We demand a Europe without barriers, the protection of free movement, and the defense of the Schengen Area as one of the EU’s most tangible achievements. Border controls burden people living in border regions, harm the economy, and contradict the notion of a shared European identity. They also offer a false sense of security, as police forces are tied up at borders instead of being present where they are actually needed.
With this petition, we call on the member states of the European Union to:
- End unlawful internal border controls and return to a functioning Schengen system based on cooperation, not national isolation.
- Uphold the rule-exception principle of the Schengen Agreement, ensuring freedom of movement as a fundamental right for all EU citizens: internal border checks must remain the exception and be clearly named as such!
- Respect human rights within the new Common European Asylum System (CEAS), and ensure a fair, solidarity-based, and protection-oriented asylum policy that is consistent with European law and our shared responsibility.
- Strengthen European democracy through transparent and coordinated border policies, involving civil society and subject to democratic oversight - instead of arbitrary security rhetoric.
- Recognize European identity as a unifying element and protect the spaces where it is lived: exchange programs, cross-border working, living, loving, acting, and protesting - without a passport check breathing down our necks.
The low priority that the member states - and recently also the German government - give to the achievement of open borders once again highlights for us, as Young European Federalists, the urgent need for a European Constitution. This Constitution must enshrine free movement as a fundamental right. Only then will freedom of movement be given the recognition it already holds in the everyday lives of Europeans. Because our Europe builds bridges, not border fences. Our Europe stands for solidarity and cooperation, for joint solutions rather than national solo efforts. And: our Europe must not allow the wildest dreams of fascists and populists to come true.
Sign now and join us in demanding: Don’t Touch My Schengen!
#DontTouchMySchengen #DontTouchMyFreedom #DontTouchMyEuropeanIdentity
Begründung
According to Article 25 of the Schengen Borders Code, the reintroduction of border controls is only permitted under certain conditions. If "public order or internal security in a Member State is seriously threatened," border controls may be reintroduced for a limited period of six months. However, this period is limited to a maximum of three years. A general threat situation due to migration – as is often politically instrumentalized – is not sufficient for this purpose.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has made it clear (https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=258262&pageIndex=0&doclang=DE&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1) that the threshold for a threat to public order and internal security is very high. Thus, border controls cannot be justified solely on the grounds of migration movements. Since 2015, however, we have witnessed the continued reintroduction of internal border controls by various national governments, sometimes with flimsy justifications. The practice of reintroducing border controls within the Schengen Area has already reached the ECJ several times, which has declared such border controls unlawful. Border controls may only be introduced in exceptional cases and after strict legal review.
Border controls mean significant restrictions for people working in border regions, place a heavy burden on the police, and result in personnel shortages elsewhere (https://taz.de/Grenzkontrollen-in-Deutschland/!6058599/). The economy, which relies on just-in-time deliveries, also suffers greatly from the delays caused by these controls (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/578974/IPOL_STU(2016)578974_EN.pdf). Furthermore, it is disputed whether border controls can even curb migration, since not all borders can be monitored anyway. This may even encourage smugglers to demand higher prices. Ultimately, it is the people who live the European ideal on a daily basis – those who cross borders for work, travel, and everyday life – who suffer the most from border controls.
Angaben zur Petition
Petition gestartet:
14.06.2025
Sammlung endet:
13.12.2025
Region:
Der gesamte Schengen-Raum
Kategorie:
Bürgerrechte
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Warum Menschen unterschreiben
Weil Schengen eines der Herzstücke eines immer weiter geeinten Europas ist und seine Verteidigung somit auch Teil der deutschen Staatsziele sein muss!
Je suis européen, habitant à la frontière avec l'Allemagne et je subis les conséquences de la fermeture des frontières. L'ouverture des frontières est l'une des plus belles étapes de la coopération européenne, la renier c'est bafouer l'Europe
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Schengen is wichtig