The Securitization of the Schengen Area on Migration Grounds

• In Event: Between Humanitarian and Security Approaches to Migrants and Minorities

Abstract

In December 2022, Croatia was admitted to the Schengen area while Bulgaria and Romania were once again rejected, despite all three countries having met the technical criteria for being part of the internal border controls free area. The European Commission issued a communication to the European Parliament and Council recommending the admission of Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania to the Schengen Area and called upon the Council to allow the three countries to Schengen without any further delay. The progress of each of the three countries was reviewed and deemed satisfactory for the admission to take place in January 2023.

Nevertheless, Austria and The Netherlands vetoed the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen Area, admitting only Croatia. This research investigates why that was the case. The theoretical underpinning of this project is based on liberal intergovernmentalism and focuses on how the two vetoing states have formed the national preferences and positions in contradiction with the supranational position.

Methodologically, the research is based on the discourse analysis of the rhetoric of the members of government in the two vetoing countries on the topic of Schengen from the beginning of the Czech presidency (July 2022) up to the vetoes (December 2022). I claim that the national preferences and positions were the result of a process of securitization of the expansion of the Schengen Area to include Bulgaria and Romania on migration grounds and uncover this through discourse analysis.

The analysis makes both empirical and theoretical contributions. It uses a novel case-study to show how national preferences and positions still dictate the EU direction on sensitive topics such as migration even when in contraction with the supranational recommendations. It also makes a contribution to the theories of differentiated integration showing how differentiation is also the result of keeping some member states outside on security grounds.

Author

• Cristina Juverdeanu, University of Leeds