As France’s President Francois Hollande announced a state of emergency across France on Friday night following shocking scenes of indiscriminate murder in the streets of Paris and at the Bataclan music venue, the country also sealed its borders in an attempt to increase security.

The border controls have not affected plane or train schedules in and out of the country – but passengers are now subject to longer delays as security is stepped up at all gateways. Aéroports de Paris says simply: “Strengthening controls. Further delays expected. Thank you for your understanding.”

The defensive lockdown has implications for the Schengen agreement [the passport-free movement within 26 EU countries]. The viability of Schengen in its current form was already in question before Friday night’s multiple attacks on Paris because of the migration crisis that has enveloped the EU.

Countries including Hungary and Slovenia have been, or are in the process of building razor wire fences at their land borders to curb migrants, while Denmark, Austria, Germany and, most recently, Sweden, have introduced temporary border checks, sanctioned by the EU.

Germany has said it plans to keep its border checks in place beyond the standard Schengen-allowed limit of two months by extending them to six months [permissible in extraordinary circumstances].

In a statement the EU says: “The temporary reintroduction of border controls between member states is an exceptional possibility explicitly foreseen in and regulated by the Schengen Borders Code, in case of a serious threat to public policy or internal security.”

TUSK: ‘FREEDOM REMAINS FRAGILE’

EU leaders held an extraordinary summit in Malta last week to discuss the refugee crisis and stronger coordination with Turkey, a key transit country for migrants heading to Europe from Syria and the Middle East.

President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said at the meeting: “With the enlargement of the Schengen area in 2007, Europe has only recently regained a freedom to travel internally that has not existed since the outbreak of the First World War. We have seen recently how this newly regained freedom remains fragile in many respects.

“These realities – alongside the deteriorating security situation in many Middle Eastern and African countries – are testing Europe’s internal solidarity. Facing them will challenge and change the EU as fundamentally as any treaty amendment, national election, or monetary crisis.”

At the beginning of November, France had already made plans to suspend Schengen for next month’s 12-day UN Climate Change Conference in Paris where around 80 heads of state are expected. The suspension – at all international airports plus 131 land crossings with Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Luxembourg – was to last for a month but the Friday Paris attacks – claimed by ISIS/ISIL/Daesh – have hastened the move.

HIGH TOURISM STAKES & FORTRESS EUROPE?

What might tip the balance now against Schengen border-free travel are two emerging pieces of information: the ISIS terrorists planned the Paris attacks in Belgium with accomplices in France says French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve; and according to the Greek government a Syrian passport found beside one of the dead ISIS terrorists was processed at one of its refugee registration camps in October and it was also used days later to cross the Serbian border.

It is not yet confirmed that this passport, whether genuine or fake, belonged definitively to the terrorist but it adds to growing concerns that the EU’s control of its external southern frontiers is not tight enough.

From a global tourism perspective these concerns have not been a focus – but following the Paris attacks, key traveling nationalities are now becoming increasingly aware of the situation. UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, says: “We are facing a global threat and this is not an attack on France, it is an attack against us all.”

Furthermore, several European countries are on high alert for terrorist attacks, including the UK whose threat level is deemed ‘severe’ meaning that an attack is highly likely. High threat levels also remain for Belgium, France, Spain and Turkey according to current assessments from the UK’s foreign office.

Tourism will not be uppermost in the minds of European leaders. More pressing for them is the need to balance humanitarian efforts towards genuine refugees with their mandates to protect the security of their citizens. Following the Paris attacks, the pressure will increase to tighten controls at the EU’s porous external borders in order to stop potential terrorists entering, as well as to make it harder for them to move freely across the region if they are inside it.