In the city of two countries, the Belgian bar is closed. Dutch pubs will soon open across the street

“I’m not allowed to open,” said van der Kogt. “But 50 meters, on the other hand, cafes and restaurants, they open first June. And I’m not allowed to go there, because I live in Belgium.”

Although Dutch restaurants remained closed, retail stores remained open throughout the crisis. And while Belgian shops are allowed to open this week, Belgians have been banned from shopping across the border – even when that means only crossing one of the white stones that meet the center of the city.

“In this crisis situation, the mayor is not the authority,” said Marjon de Hoon-Veelenturf, one of the two mayors of Baarle (he is Dutch). “We just have to listen to the laws and regulations of The Hague and Brussels.

“A discussion arises where citizens talk to each other about which country is taking the most reasonable steps. That brings a certain polarization.”

People were “shocked” by the coronavirus crisis experienced by the Belgian mayor, Frans de Bont. “Personally, but also countries, Europe. I think they were surprised together.”

Baarle is certainly an extreme example. The question for Europe is whether your own country-by-country approach is an indication of deeper decay in the union.

“The first reaction was clearly a national level reaction, completely uncoordinated and chaotic, and completely out of line with what you expect from a shared border-free travel area that has been around since 1995,” said Marie de Somer, senior policy analyst at European Policy Center.

The European Commission itself said on Wednesday, in a policy paper intended to outline how to reopen the Schengen-free travel area, that internal border controls “endanger our European way of life.”

It warned that if the border remained closed “beyond what was needed for public health reasons,” the closure would “place a heavy burden not only on the function of the Single Market, but also on the lives of millions of deprived EU citizens.” the benefits of freedom of movement, which is a major achievement of the European Union. “

This is not the first time the European Union has had to deal with a government that left Schengen at the first sign of the crisis. For several years now, countries including Germany have carried out several levels of border control, ostensibly to stem the flow of migrants who move illegally within the EU.

The scale of coronavirus closure, is unprecedented, said Ian Lesser, vice president at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels.

“The risk, of course, is that such a national-member-state-first approach is somehow the norm, and is embedded in policy and politics,” he said.

More likely, he added, the economic benefits of open borders will at least in the short term mean that border controls will not be maintained, and “only strengthen the value of having open borders within the Schengen area.”

For now, local roads cross the Dutch-Belgian border, a short drive from Baarle remains barricaded with concrete blocks. Local residents mock that the barrier is easily crossed by smaller rural farm roads, but the symbolism is clear.

Julien Leemans, 63, confusedly took it all in stride. The border was not an abstraction for him – it crossed his house.

“Ninety percent of the house is Dutch,” he laughed. “Ten percent – only toilets – are Belgium.”

Yes, the front door also belongs to the Belgians, and that means he lives in Belgium – cannot shop in Dutch shops, even though he himself was born and raised in the Netherlands.

“You see now the differences from countries about the corona – Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain – everything is different.”

“Europe?” he said with a laugh. “What is that?”