Border Protection and Freedom of Movement

Europeans are not at all shy when it comes to European solutions. They like their freedom of movement and want to see it protected. They support a common border control regime. They think that the EU should be in charge of European migration policies. They say yes to burden sharing. They even say yes to sanctions, if a state refuses burden sharing.

Sounds improbable? Well, check out the latest issue of eupinions. eupinions is a series of European-wide polls conducted by Bertelsmann Stiftung. This issue focusses on asylum and migration policies. The numbers are astonishing. If Schengen breaks up it is not because the European citizens wanted it.

“Of course there are contentious issues and contradictions,” the authors Catherine de Vries and Isabell Hoffmann write, “but the citizens’ love of freedom of movement clearly exceeds their dislike of burden sharing.”