Today the European Parliament held an emergency debate on Schengen following the decision taken by Justice and Home Affairs Ministers on 8 June to remove from the European Parliament its co-legislative rights on the new Schengen package - despite many months of negotiations based on the Commission proposals using article 77 as the legal basis.

ALDE Group President Guy Verhofstadt said: "This is a clear attempt to renationalise Schengen and marginalise Parliament's legislative prerogative It is a direct attack on the Community method and the guarantee of passport-free movement within the Schengen area which lies at the heart of our Union".

"Ironically, the UK, which is not in Schengen, can still sit at the negotiating whilst the European Parliament has been shown the door".

"We simply will not accept this. We must challenge the Council's decision before the European Court of Justice and halt all ongoing negotiations in the area of Justice and Home Affairs under the Danish presidency".

Note to editors:
The vote in plenary is scheduled for July plenary session and it will conclude the first reading of the legislative procedure based on Article 77(2)e as originally presented by the Commission.

In defiance of the decision of the Council to change the legal basis from article 77(2)e of the Treaty to Articles 70 TFEU and 19(7)h, the Civil Liberties committee last night decided to vote on the two pieces of the Schengen package dealing with the Schengen evaluation mechanism (Coelho report) and the temporary introduction of border controls (Weber report). "This Thursday will be the 27th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement. 62% of our citizens consider Schengen as the most positive outcome of 50 years of European integration. Schengen has made passport-free travel possible for over 400 million Europeans."