The other day, concerned about what is happening in France, its President Emmanuel Macron made a proactive statement on the need to strengthen the borders of the Schengen area.
This statement was made following a video conference with the Austrian Chancellor and the heads of the European Commission and the European Council.
In the same emotional speech by the French president, the creation of a pan-European Security Council was announced.
Macron was meaningfully silent about what kind of council it is, with what powers, who it should consist of and who should be established.
After the well-known events with lone terrorists in France, an attack at a synagogue in Austria, and other seemingly unrelated tragedies of recent weeks that struck the imagination of a European man in the street, already tired of the coronavirus pandemic, European leaders wondered how they could actually build their own The "iron curtain" from the penetration of various dubious and dangerous characters into Europe.
The very idea in this direction seems to contradict the concept of the last three decades of building an open world on a single continent.
Building impassable borders, albeit around several countries, resembles a fence around several collective farm farms.
And of course, such an approach directly contradicts the ideas of globalism, which may be restored (at least for Europe) by the 46th US President Joe Biden and his faithful Kamala, crawling up to the White House Oval Office.
What is left for the Europeans to do?
The flow of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa, which Europe barely digested five years ago (and then thanks to a deal with Turkey at a cost of € 4 billion a year), nevertheless metastasized extremism and terrorism.
Then, in 2015, Erdogan promised for the money to filter the flow in Turkey, where he created refugee camps.
"We must reform Schengen so that it becomes a security space!"
- exclaims Macron rhetorically.
And how this can be done, when Europe has accepted several million refugees over these five years - and how many of them are still unactivated lone terrorists, it is difficult to say with certainty.
The fence is fine, of course, but who's going to filter this horde inside?
There are practically no real special services left in any of the EU countries.
Those that exist are of a decorative nature of auxiliary structures for the global (read - American) intelligence services, which, for obvious reasons, have greatly reduced their activity in ensuring security in Europe in recent years.
In this light, the dream proposal of the President of the Fifth Republic to create a pan-European Security Council does not look so illogical.
Indeed, the actions of at least the internal law enforcement agencies of the Schengen countries require constant and accurate operational coordination.
The existing protocols within the European Commission are clearly bureaucratic and inadequate in the face of the threats that have arisen today to the safety of European citizens.
The identification and neutralization of "sleeping" terrorists in a million-strong horde spread across all countries within the Schengen area is not at all like the fight against the mythical "Russian threat", when through the new Schengen limitrophes, the SIS database was marked as a "threat to national security" in relation to certain Russian citizens (political scientists, journalists, public figures, politicians) who were disagreeable to someone as participants in social, political and humanitarian exchanges with European colleagues.
Such restrictions have been adopted over the past few years against dozens of Russian citizens for a period of three to five years!
In fairness, it should be noted that the French Ministry of Internal Affairs has always been critical of the use of the Schengen Protocol as an instrument of political reprisals against foreign dissent.
In addition, it is important to understand that the terrorist attacks in France and Austria triggered a rising wave of public pressure on the governments of European countries to restore state borders within Europe.
The pandemic and the danger of the spread of coronavirus in the past year directly require strict quarantine.
At least strict filtration at the entrance with rapid testing for viruses, both biological and mental.
And where these rigid filtration chambers will be - on the Schengen border or on the restored state borders of European countries - depends on the speed of making appropriate decisions by European bureaucrats.
As President Macron rightly stressed, "public opinion in countries facing a terrorist threat will not be able to withstand open borders for long if we do not carry out a deep reform of the Schengen zone."
It must be assumed that the challenges that Europe has faced in recent years will lead not only to the strengthening of the borders of Schengen itself or even to a change in the principles of the Schengen Agreement up to its temporary denunciation.
Such wonderful things as Schengen work in a time of stability, regular and precise international relations that the world experienced at the end of the last century and the beginning of this century.
Unfortunately, this blissful period of several decades is over.
And life itself today requires new approaches, new structures and new leaders - if not for the sake of ensuring the standard of living, then for the sake of preserving the very life of European citizens.
For such challenges, France and Europe need a new General de Gaulle.
Whether Emmanuel Macron could become the new de Gaulle of Europe is a rhetorical question.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.