‘Europe’s idea of free movement losing its appeal’
Sweden is attempting to secure its borders because many European countries are incapable of doing that, says Jonas Christensen, editor and host on local Danish channel ESTV.
A Danish ferry firm that operates between Sweden and Denmark has reported Sweden to the European Commission for infringing the Schengen agreement. The move follows the introduction of mandatory ID border checks aimed at stemming the influx of migrants.
RT: Sweden has been criticized for introducing temporary ID border checks to stem the influx of migrants. But as a sovereign nation they have the right to introduce any measure they consider efficient, don't they?
Jonas Christensen: They do have the right to do that sort of thing because some of the countries with outer border lines in the EU did not uphold their part of the deal of the Schengen agreement. I think it is ok that Sweden tries to secure the border of the country because many of the European countries couldn’t do that. That’s ok, I think.
RT: Why did it cause such an argument between Denmark and Sweden? Do you think it is being overblown?
JC: I think it is being overblown because the funny thing is the Danish police said that they would reestablish a border control on the German-Danish border. So, they are actually doing the same thing as Sweden is doing. It is being overblown, I think.
RT: Is it a way forward introducing those border checks?
JC: I think it is a good idea because it should have been done a long time ago but it is a good idea because we can now check people who come or want to come into our countries and see who these people are. Before they could just walk into our countries and we didn’t know who these people were. They could possibly be terrorists as we have seen in France. So, I think it is a good idea.
RT: There is a lot of tension. Initially when this crisis started people were sort of open to the idea of receiving migrants. And now that attitude seems to have changed.
JC: Before there wasn’t so many refugees as we see now. And we cannot take in as many immigrants as we see now. Of course, the idea of free movement is not the same; people do not think it is a good idea anymore because they see that there are some bad things about this idea with free movement.
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