By John O'Donnell and Justyna Pawlak
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union executive is considering allowing member states to reinstate some border controls, its president said on Sunday, responding to demands for more national power to stem immigration.
The announcement lent momentum to a campaign by France and Italy to reimpose some of the border checks, abolished in 1995 under the Schengen agreement, as they grapple with an influx of migrants fleeing political upheaval in North Africa.
In a letter to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said it would be possible to permit countries reintroduce limited controls.
"The temporary restoration of borders is one of the possibilities, provided this is subject to specific and clearly defined criteria, that could be an element to strengthen the governance of the Schengen agreement," Barroso wrote.
EU countries may already introduce temporary border checks as Germany has done to stop foreign soccer hooligans visiting football games, but new EU rules could widen countries' freedom to do so, said a source familiar with the plans.
"To reinstate border controls now, you have to justify that based on the threat to public order," said the source.
"With the new system, you would no longer need to invoke a threat to public order. This would extend the possibilities to reinstate controls."
The EU executive, which writes the first draft of EU laws that are then sent to countries for approval, plans to present an outline of its legal proposals in the coming days.
If accepted, the new EU rules would alter one of the biggest achievements of the single European market, passport-free travel, but one which makes it harder to curb illegal migration.
The proposals could become law as soon as they are agreed by the EU's 27 member states and the bloc's parliament, a process that could be concluded in months but could also easily drag on for more than a year.
The arrival of thousands of immigrants from North Africa prompted France in April to shut its borders to trains carrying African migrants from Italy.
The two countries accused each other of flouting the spirit of the Schengen treaty, which eliminates many border controls within the EU.
So far this year, around 25,000 migrants, most from France's former colony Tunisia, have arrived in southern Italy on small, overloaded fishing boats, creating a humanitarian emergency on the tiny island of Lampedusa where most of the boats landed.
Italy says it has been left to deal with the problem on its own while Paris has accused Rome of trying to escape its responsibilities by allowing illegal immigrants free transit across the border. Last Tuesday, French President Sarkozy visited Rome to try to defuse tension.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)