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Frontier controls proposed in passport-free Schengen zone for emergencies after demands from France and Italy France and Italy appeared to have won the right to reintroduce border controls in emergency situations, after the European commission called for new rules to govern EU frontiers. Countries in Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone will be able to temporarily impose controls at their frontiers in the event of a sudden influx of migrants, according to proposals unveiled by the commission on Wednesday, after a surge in migrant numbers from north Africa across the Mediterranean. “To safeguard the stability of the Schengen area, it may also be necessary to foresee the temporary reintroduction of limited internal border controls under very exceptional circumstances,” the EU home affairs commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, told reporters. The EU would also look to create a border patrol, intensify surveillance of Europe’s frontiers and re-establish pacts with north African governments to control the flow of immigrants across the Mediterranean. The commission announced the migration strategy after demands last week from France and Italy for a review of the Schengen agreement, which covers 25 European countries. The government in Rome says Italy is being swamped with refugees from north Africa and is demanding other European countries take in some of those arriving on its shores. Under the proposals, which will be discussed by EU home affairs ministers on 12 May, the commission itself would assess whether there was an emergency situation. Were a state within the Schengen zone to fail in its “obligation to patrol its part of the external border”, the mechanism would permit a limited re-introduction of border controls to isolate that state. Such moves would be “very limited” and done under “strict rules”, Malmstrom said. A number of northern states have called the commissioner to express their alarm at calls by France and Italy for a watering down of free movement within the EU. Malmstrom, a liberal on immigration issues, warned against the attempted exploitation of the situation by anti-immigrant groups. “We do not need to give in to short-term approaches to border control and populist and simplistic solutions,” she said. The European Council on Refugees and Exiles, a network of NGOs, said it was less concerned about proposed changes inside the Schengen zone than the beefing up of the EU’s external border and agreements with north African countries to restrict the flow of migrants, known as “mobility partnerships”. “This in effect is a return to the sort of pact Italy made with Libya before the Arab spring,” said the council’s secretary general, Bjarte Vandvik. In recent years, southern EU governments had signed a series of agreements with north African regimes under which the states would prevent migrants, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, from arriving in European waters. Such accords were in tatters after the uprisings in the region. Vandvik added that the influx of migrants – an estimated 25,000, according to the commission in Brussels – has been blown out of proportion. “People see black people in boats landing on a small island in Italy and it seems unmanageable, but this year has seen a 20-year low in the number of asylum seekers,” Vandvik said. “The largest number of migrants that have fled the fighting in Libya in fact headed to Tunisia. “But Tunisia is keeping its borders open, has welcomed some 300,000 people and tried to treat them in the best manner. It is Tunisia that needs help handling its refugees, not Italy.” He compared the situation to the Balkan crisis in the 1990s, when western European states took in half a million refugees, with 350,000 in Germany alone. “The EU is being hypocritical at best and racist at worst. How can Europe say they applaud the new democracy coming to north Africa and then, when people flee, we turn our backs to them?” European Union Europe France Italy Arab and Middle East unrest Leigh Phillips guardian.co.uk