On Friday last the new Schengen zone of passport-free travel came into effect in much of the European mainland, as nine new states joined the system. Several more, including Romania, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Cyprus, are expected to join in coming years.
Most of them are simultaneously members of the European Union, the main driver of these changes. It is a progressive step, allowing travellers to move freely from Tallinn to Lisbon, boosting business and tourism as they go, although security services worry about a consequential increase in cross-border crime.
On the map of the Schengen area Ireland and Britain are conspicuous absentees on the west of the continent, along with the main Balkan states, Turkey, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Moldova and Russia to the east. New lines are being drawn. Asked recently whether there is a case for Ireland, North and South, to join the new Schengen system in Europe, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said: "I don't think there is any discussion on it. It is not an idea that is being floated . . . I don't think it is going to happen".
The question arises directly from Britain's refusal to participate in Schengen because it prefers to maintain control of is own borders. If the common travel area between Ireland and Britain is to continue it is conventionally argued that this State cannot join Schengen. But this orthodoxy has been upset by the British government's determination to introduce a system of electronic border controls. To be effective they must be applied either at the Border on this island or between Ireland and Britain. The former solution is unthinkable for the Government and the latter for unionists in Northern Ireland. Instead it is proposed that this State will draw up its own e-border system to match the British one.
That is a regrettable and potentially a retrograde step. It does not necessarily resolve the basic dilemma of where to impose border controls, which are now being applied to travellers between these islands anyway. It draws this State back into a British legal, political and security orbit, from which membership of the EU mainstream has successfully diversified it in recent decades. The trend is reinforced by the British and Irish opt-outs from the Lisbon Treaty's justice and home affairs provisions, further reducing Ireland's legal and political influence over them, as the European Court has now ruled.
It is true that there has been little discussion of the alternative idea that Ireland North and South could apply to join Schengen without prejudice to Northern Ireland's UK position. But the idea is a good one, which deserves more considered debate and political support.
