Schengen: parliament to have no control
01 May 1997
In the final session of the Danish parliament on 30 May a majority, comprising Social Democrats, Social Liberals, Centre Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives, voted for Denmark to join the Schengen Agreement. The decision to join Schengen was accompanied by warnings of constitutional problems, criticism from asylum and human rights experts and a government "guillotine" on its parliamentary passage.
The decision to join was the result of a long process which began in the early 1990s and gathered momentum in 1995 when it was agreed that Denmark could become an "observer" from May 1996. In December 1996 the Danish government signed the Treaty together with Sweden and Finland. Iceland and Norway signed a special accord which enabled them, as non-EU members, to be "associated" with Schengen and thus preserve the Nordic Passport Union.
Right up until the final decision parliamentary critics on the left - the Red-Green Alliance and Peoples' Socialist Party - and the right - The Progress Party and the Danish Peoples' Party - tried to raise and clarify some of the many problems which membership gives rise to such as the relation between the Danish constitution and Schengen and parliament's control over the governments activities in the Schengen Executive Committee. However, the parliamentary majority were not willing to discuss these problems in detail and the decision was "forced" through, despite the government timetable allowing debate until 1997.
Outside parliament experts and organisations raised concerns and complained that serious consideration of the many consequences of Schengen membership was impossible because of the time limit which the government imposed on the process. The Danish Refugee Council, the Danish Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International Denmark and the Solicitor's Council are usually consulted before legislation is put before parliament. On this occasion they strongly criticised the procedure which meant that they received the text on the same day as it was put before parliament and the limited time they were given to respond to it.
A representative from the Danish Human Rights Centre, who criticised the changes in the Aliens Law which follows as a result of Schengen, said about the proposed changes:
"The experiences with the Schengen cooperations up to now shows, that in some countries the tendency is that the asylum seekers are being cut of from entering (the Schengen countries)."
There was also criticism from the Danish Refugee Council, in their comments on the law they wrote:
"In reality this means, that it becomes very difficult for persons with a protection need to get to find refuge in Europe legally".
The Constitution and parliamentary accountability
The decision to join did not take place without opposition. The Red-Green Alliance and Peoples Socialist Party asked the Government to have independent judicial analysis of the relation between the Constitution and the Schengen Convention. This was rejected.
Furthermore they put forward a proposal to include in parliamentary procedures a "scrutiny" system whereby the government would have to ask the Justice Committee for a mandate before each meeting in the Executive Committee. This proposal was rejected by the Justice Minister, Mr Frank Jensen. He said that the parliament would only get briefed before each Executive Committee meeting but would have no powers of scrutiny - even though a similar procedure applies to EU-Council meetings.