Saturday, 2 July 2011

Denmark border controls a sign of the times

Danish parliament has now approved that border control will resume on German and Swedish borders next Tuesday. The new measures are a result of political bargaining with the far-right ally of the ruling centre-right liberal party. Denmark joined Schengen area in 2001 and claims the new measures comply with Schengen framework. Views are largely different among EU officials.

The current political tide in the Nordic countries is toward less tolerance and more turning inwards. This is relatively typical backlash after any such major change like the one that has been induced via the EU and Schengen memberships. It is propably the necessary step to allow for greater integration in the future. Some ancient eastern proverbs could be switched to say that Brussels is far away and does not understand our needs to describe the feeling particularly on the countryside.

Europe wide investors will face their share of the pain from the current political change, for it also constitutes blaming others and investors tend to be an easy ”evil” target. The sovereign debt crisis is just the right trigger to introduce new measures against such activities, that are seen as benefiting from the working people instead of adding to the society’s competitiveness. Thus far the anti-immigration ideal has been more important than left/right divide for the new populist parties, but the pendulum may swing to the other side.

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