Free movement to be suspended during Euro 2004
01 March 2004
Antonio Figuereido Lopes, the Portuguese Interior Minister, told parliament on 16 March 2004 that Portugal will avail itself of article 2(2) of the Schengen Treaty, allowing it to temporarily reinstate border controls, thus suspending the freedom of movement that applies within the Schengen area, while it hosts the European football championships from 12 June to 4 July - and for the Rock in Rio music festival which will be staged on subsequent weekends, from 28 to 30 May, and from 4 to 6 June. Police presence in airports, places where "large agglomerations of people" are present, and border areas, will be strengthened with up to 20,000 extra officers (12,000 are envisaged at present). These measures are motivated, according to the Interior Minister, by security concerns, especially the possibility that this high profile event may become a target for terrorists, although "no credible threat" has been received.
Figuereido told foreign journalists that cooperation with "Spanish security forces" had "intensified", and that "a centre has been established in Portugal in which all the available information from countries that are signatories to the Schengen agreements is received and collected". This information regards the three potential threats that the Portuguese authorities have identified: terrorism, which has been re-assessed in the light of the Madrid attacks, hooliganism and crime in general. The 18 football teams that will take part in the competition will each have security or intelligence liaison officers, to assist their Portuguese counterparts. As a result of the attacks in Madrid, the Unidade de Coordenaçao Anti-Terrorista (UCAT, Anti-Terrorist Coordination Unit), is meeting on a daily basis to identify possible threats. Originally set up in February 2003, the UCAT includes members from the Serviço de Informaçoes de Segurança (SIS, Security Information Service), the Serviço de Informaçoes Estratégicas de Defesa e Militares (SIEDM, Strategic Defence and Military Information Service), the judicial police, the maritime authority and the Serviços de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF, Border and Immigration Service). Figueredo claimed that they are enjoying "excellent cooperation with Europol", and that NATO will contribute to Portugal's air security by using its AWACS air control aircraft.
The outgoing Spanish government also announced on 22 March 2003 that the free movement of persons across Schengen borders into Spain will be temporarily suspended from 15 to 23 May 2004. Article 2(2) of the Schengen Treaty will be invoked for the celebration of the marriage of Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne, to former journalist Letizia Ortiz on 22 May. Security measures for the wedding were tightened following the Madrid bombings, and they include actions to be undertaken in advance of the wedding such as checks in thousands of houses in the centre of Madrid, especially rented accommodation, along the route of the royal cortège.
Article 2 of the 1990 Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement abolished checks at the internal borders of participating states (applying to the 15 European member states before the recent enlargement, except for the UK and Ireland, and two non-member states, Norway and Iceland). Nonetheless, an exception is envisaged in paragraph 2 of article 2, "Where public policy or national security so require, however, a Contracting Party may, after consulting the other Contracting Parties, decide that for a limited period border checks appropriate to the situation will be carried out at internal borders."
A Statewatch report (in Statewatch European Monitor vol. 3 no 4, February 2003) about the freedom of movement for citizens of signatory States under Article 2 of the Schengen Agreement, found that this right had been suspended, with border controls reinstated, "at least 26 times" between January 2000 and December 2002. In at least 16 cases, the suspension of freedom of movement was<