Law enforcement in Europe

Greece needs to do more to secure the Schengen external border, Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar has said adding that failure to do so could mean exit from Europe's 26-nation zone of passport-free travel.

BELGRADE - EU countries cannot imprison illegal migrants just for crossing borders inside the passport-free Schengen area, the bloc's top court ruled Tuesday, in a new blow to efforts to crack down on the migration crisis.

BRUSSELS - The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday proposed that the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament lift visa requirements for citizens of Kosovo for short stays in the Schengen area.

The Commission also presented a positive assessment "confirming that Kosovo has fulfilled the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap," an EC statement said.

Kati Piri, the rapporteur for Turkey at the European Parliament, has said she does not believe visa-free travel for Turkish citizens will be realized in the short term as Turkey will not be able to fulfill the remaining criteria by a July deadline, BBC Turkish has reported.

Greece’s citizens are forced to go through passport control within Schengen area, while European Commission suggests the lifting of visa requirements for Turkish citizens who travel to EU.

Europol warned of the possibility of new terrorist attacks across Europe similar to the ones in Paris and Brussels. The director of the EU’s law enforcement unit, Ron Wainwright, underlined that a threat of new attacks was very serious, adding that the jihadists that carried out the attacks in Paris arrived on the continent by infiltrating the refugee flows.

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed the extension of emergency border controls inside the passport-free Schengen area, declaring that the tighter checks were justified by shortfalls in Greece's management of the European Union's external border.

The European Commission has proposed to the European Parliament and EU governments to scrap visa requirements for Turkish citizens provided that Turkey will fulfil the outstanding benchmarks of its Visa Liberalisation Roadmap.

The European Commission proposed a 6-month extension of emergency border controls in the Schengen area for five countries, Wednesday.

The European Commission has proposed to extend for up to six months temporary controls at internal Schengen borders in five Member States which attract the majority of refugees and migrants streaming into Europe.