LONDON — Europe’s open-borders policy is coming under threat as mainstream politicians react to what they perceive as a growing challenge from right-wing, anti-immigration parties such as France’s National Front.  France and Germany will this week propose placing limits on the free movement of people within the so-called Schengen zone, an area that extends across 25 European states. Entry to one member state in principle permits free access to all the others.  The French and German interior ministers are reported to be preparing to put forward a proposal on Thursday that would revise the 1985 Schengen Agreement to allow border controls to be re-imposed for limited periods to keep out illegal immigrants.  Defenders of the “open Europe” ideal have accused them of bowing to right-wing populists with a proposal that could turn the clock back on what they see as a major benefit of a united Europe.  Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, lambasted Nicolas Sarkozy for pandering to the anti-immigrant sentiments of the far right and said it was the president’s own fault if one in five French voters chose the National Front in the first round of the French presidential election last Sunday.  “If you repeat every day that we must change Schengen, that we have to have a tough immigration policy, that we have to talk about French exceptionalism, that is grist to the mill of the National Front,” he said.  Mr. Sarkozy appeared not to have taken Mr. Asselborn’s warning on board when he told a rally on Monday, his first since the first round of voting, that the French did not want a Europe that was like a sieve. “We agree that we have to adapt to a new world, but we don’t want to lose our way of life,” he said.  The French leader had already threatened during campaigning for the first round that he would pull France out of the Schengen agreement unless Europe provided better protection from illegal immigration. Germany’s decision to support tighter controls was widely interpreted as a pre-election gift from the government of his ally, Chancellor Angela Merkel.  The Schengen Agreement has already come under review because of waves of illegal immigration from Africa, in particular via Italy and Greece. The Italian and Greek authorities have been accused of allowing illegal immigrants to move on to other European states rather than tackling the problem themselves.  Hans-Peter Friedrich, the German interior minister, told Germany’s Rheinische Post: “When countries like Greece fail to adequately control the exterior borders, then we have to be allowed to temporarily control the interior borders.”  Member states are already allowed to impose controls at national borders in exceptional circumstances. At the height of the 2011 Arab Spring, France closed its borders to trains carrying North African migrants from Italy. The European Commission ruled that the action was legal under the accord.  Spain will seek to impose border controls with France for a week, starting Saturday, as Barcelona prepares to host a meeting of the European Central Bank.  It does not want any troublesome demonstrators traveling to Spain to disrupt the party and is suspending the Schengen rules in the face of a potential “serious threat to public order or domestic security.”  France and Germany want to allow such short-term suspensions of “last resort” to run for up to 30 days, a change clearly aimed at immigrants rather than protestors or soccer hooligans.  The move faces resistance within Europe, not least because it might reverse the economic benefits of a border-free regime, and opponents have begun a campaign to fight it:  @MartinSchulz @JeunesEuropeens and @JEF_de published a press release in which they condemn the plans about #Schengen jef.de/fileadmin/file…  — Les Jeunes Européens (@JeunesEuropeens) April 24, 2012  And Cecilia Malstrom, Europe’s home affairs commissioner, responding to the expected French and German proposal, has reminded member states that any change in the rules must be taken at a Europe-wide level.
The rise of the populist far right has prompted some European politicians to press for tighter border controls. Their critics say it is a panicked reaction that could spell the end of "open Europe."