by Nick Alipour
Following increased political pressure, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced on Monday (9 September) that she will introduce checks at all border crossings and develop a model to refuse entry to irregular migrants.
Following a spike in irregular border crossings, Germany started operating exceptional checks at the land borders with Poland, Czechia, Switzerland, and Austria last year. Temporary checks at all borders were also in place during the European football championship and the Olympics and Paralympics.
They are now due to be extended to all of Germany’s land borders from Monday, 16 September. While the EU’s Schengen area regulations normally prohibit border checks, member countries may register exceptions with the European Commission, as Germany has done.
“We want to further reduce irregular migration. To this end, we are now taking further steps that go beyond the comprehensive measures currently in place,” Faeser (SPD) told reporters in Berlin on Monday.
“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new Common European Asylum System, we need to strengthen controls at our national borders.”
She added that the impact on neighbouring countries and cross-borders commuters should be minimal. Existing checks during the summer’s sporting events have been punctual.
This comes as the CDU, the main centre-right opposition party, has been pushing for the move for months. Moreover, the party had made the refusal of entry to irregular migrants at the border a condition for agreeing on jointly coordinated measures against irregular migration.
Faeser said on Monday that her ministry would also introduce a model to refuse entry to irregular migrants, which is in line with European law.
This step remains controversial. Parties such as the Greens, also part of the governing coalition, have previously warned that this would make it impossible to check which EU country is responsible for processing the migrants, which is required by EU law.
The CDU has suggested that Germany should declare an emergency according to Article 72 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which allows states to take exceptional measures to maintain public order.
However, the European Court of Justice has repeatedly prevented such measures in the past.
Faeser said that details of that model would be announced tomorrow after a meeting with the opposition to discuss the measures.
The move comes after German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock warned on Monday against German solo efforts on migration.
After years of negotiations, the German government had done everything it could ‘to get a common European asylum system up and running in Europe’, Baerbock said in Berlin.
Germany must not now “allow ourselves to be fooled by those who are now deluding us that the nation state could better regulate anything in Europe on its own,” she added.
*first published in: Euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
