EU To Extend Schengen Border Controls For Three Months

STRASBOURG, France, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Oct, 2016 ) : The EU moved Tuesday to prolong border controls in the passport-free Schengen area for three months, missing an end-of-year deadline to scrap the emergency measures adopted to cope with last year's massive migrant influx.

The European Commission, the European Union executive, said it recommended for "a period of a further three months" the extension of checks at the borders of Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and non-EU Norway starting in November.

The EU had said it wanted to restore full functioning with no border controls across the Schengen area -- which includes 22 EU countries as well as Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Lichtenstein -- by the end of the year.

"We are working hard to return to a normal functioning Schengen area as soon as possible, and we have made significant progress," European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said in a statement. "But we are not there yet," he said on the sidelines of a session of the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg.