Denmark defended its decision to tighten border controls on Thursday saying it needed to curb smuggling and illegal immigration, in a sign of growing European concern over the limits of unrestricted travel, according to Reuters. Denmark's centre-right government agreed to step up frontier checks on Wednesday at the demand of a populist party which has been holding up approval of its 2020 economic plan. The move raised some concerns in the EU, where many see the free movement of people through the bloc as one of the main achievements of European integration. But Denmark's decision has also given momentum to discussions, particularly in France and Italy, on whether restored internal borders should be used to control migration, particularly following the turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East. Entering an emergency EU meeting on the issue on Thursday, Denmark's integration minister said the Danish decision was meant to curb trafficking of people, goods and drugs and did not contravene EU rules on free movement. "We are trying our best to take measures that will secure the best aspects of freedom of movement, and at the same time, not let criminal activity pass through freely," Soren Pind told reporters. "This is a message that will have deep resonance within the European community. This is why France and Italy have asked for this issue to be discussed," he said. The decision will mean investing in new border facilities, more customs officials and extensive video surveillance of cars crossing Danish borders. BORDER REFORMS LOOMING The European Commission, which oversees how governments implement EU rules, said it had asked the Danish authorities for details of its plans and would assess if these were within the bloc's treaties and laws. "We would, however, like to make it quite clear that the Commission cannot accept and will not accept actions that are a step backward from the treaty on European Union as regards free movement of goods and persons across internal borders," a Commission spokesman told a regular briefing. The European Commission has previously said, however, that exceptional circumstances may allow for limiting free travel across Europe at certain times and agreed last week to prepare a proposal for such rules as part of a wider package of reforms that aim to address migration from North Africa. EU governments are divided over what circumstances would be acceptable to restore borders, and how this would be decided. Some states, wanting to ensure any decisions are made jointly by the bloc, were critical of Denmark's move. "We are worried by unilateral decisions," Spain's Ana Terron, minister for migration policy, said in Brussels. But EU diplomats said some reform was inevitable for Europe's Schengen zone -- named after a village in Luxembourg where a deal to cut border checks was signed in 1985 -- because of growing hostility towards immigrants and concerns over the fallout of turmoil in Africa. "We are moving in that direction, without question," one senior EU diplomat said. Nearly 700,000 people have fled violence in Libya so far, about a third of them migrant workers from Asia and elsewhere in Africa.
