At the European level, it was seen in many – though not all – capitals as a potentially far-reaching blow to the 27-nation, passport-free Schengen zone, considered one of the EU’s biggest and most economically important achievements. /8

“It’s a kind of a trap,” a diplomat from one EU member state said. “Once you introduce this kind of measure with no real practical justification, how do you sell to voters the notion, just a few months later, that it’s now somehow safe to reverse it?” /9