Following last week's decision by EU home affairs ministers to change the legal basis and exclude Parliament from decisions related to the management of the EU's border-free Schengen area, GUE/NGL MEP Cornelia Ernst told the Danish presidency
that what it was doing was "anti-democratic, despicable and undermines the Community method".
"Open borders in the EU is a very meaningful symbol, the very symbol of European union throughout the world," she said.