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New anti-terrorism law in France: free movement in the Schengen area in jeopardy ?

15 November 2014

The Cimade and Romeurope have published a joint press release denouncing the inclusion, in the new anti-terrorism bill adopted in early Novcember, of a new prerogative of the state - the administrative territory ban (Interdiction Administrative du Territoire).

This clauses enables the Ministry of Interior to deny entry to any foreign national who constitutes a threat to public order and, as explained by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, to ban access to European citizens "linked with radical if not terrorist movements".

The two organisations argue that the procedural guarantees are not sufficiently detailed in the bill - the mere suspicion that a foreign national may seriously threaten public order is enough to justify a ban.

They go further by recalling a recent decision by the Council of State (Administrative Cassation Court) which ruled that fake fundraising on the street asking people for money constituted a serious disruption of public order.

According to La Cimade and Romeurope, the "administration will now be able to deem a person and his/her family undesirable in France, without the latter being in the position to be informed about it or even appeal this decision from abroad."

Source: 'Cazeneuve s’arroge le droit de blacklister des étrangers', la Cimade/Romeurope, 6 November 2014