Europe's Open Borders Increasingly Look Like Continent's Achilles' Heal
PARIS (AP) — Europe's open borders symbolize liberty and forward thinking — but they increasingly look like the continent's Achilles' heel.
Europe's No. 1 terrorism suspect crossed at least two borders this week despite an international manhunt, and was felled only by chance, in a random ID check. The bungled chase for Berlin attack suspect Anis Amri is just one example of recent cross-border security failures that are emboldening nationalists fed up with European unity. Extremist violence, they argue, is too high a price to pay for the freedom to travel.
Defenders of the EU's border-free zone say the security failures show the need for more cooperation among European governments, even shared militaries — not new barriers. Hidebound habits of hoarding intelligence within centuries-old borders, they contend, are part of the problem.
But their arguments are easily drowned out by the likes of far right leader Marine Le Pen, hoping to win France's presidency in May.
"The myth of total free movement in Europe, which my rivals are clinging to in this presidential election, should be definitively buried. Our security depends on it," she said in a statement Friday, calling the free-travel zone a "total security catastrophe."
That poses a dilemma for EU devotees like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing a re-election battle next year.
Geir Moulson in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, contributed.
After Berlin attack, Europe weighs freedom against security
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