Poland favours keeping internal Schengen borders open
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
04.12.2015 17:30
Poland wants to keep borders within the Schengen zone open, the country’s interior minister announced on Friday before a meeting with his EU counterparts.
Photo: Glowimages
However, Minister Mariusz Błaszczak stressed that the zone's external borders “should be strengthened.”
After the influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East to the EU and the terrorist attacks in Paris last month, the European Union is debating limiting the free movement of people within its borders, not only across its external ones.
“Poland believes that the Schengen zone is our common good,” Błaszczak said.
On the subject of the external borders, he said that “we are ready to provide assistance – humanitarian aid – as well as the deployment of border guards,” adding that he is ready to dispatch 80 border guards.
Greek prime minister Aleksis Tsipras’ government has agreed to the placement of a few hundred Frontex guards (the EU border patrol), including the 80 Poles, on the Greek-Macedonian border. (ua/nh/rk)