Faeser has extended controls at the border with Austria

Created: 04/27/2022, 13:43

German federal police officers monitor the traffic on the A93 motorway on the border with Austria.

© Matthias Balk/dpa

The controls at the Bavarian-Austrian border, which were temporarily introduced at the time of Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) and then repeatedly extended, are to be continued.

Berlin - Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) has extended the controls at the border with Austria by a further six months.

A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told the German Press Agency on Wednesday.

In a letter to the EU Commission dated April 14, the ministry "notified the temporary reintroduction of internal border controls at the German-Austrian land border on May 12, 2022 for a six-month period".

The reason for the extension until November was the migration happening at this border section.

Actually, there are no stationary identity checks at the borders in the Schengen area, to which 26 European countries belong.

In recent years, however, several countries have used an exception and partially reintroduced border controls.

Germany has been controlling Bavaria on the border with Austria since autumn 2015 after tens of thousands of refugees and other migrants made their way from Greece to Western Europe via the Balkan route.

In a judgment on the border controls introduced between Austria and Slovenia in 2015 on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice pointed out that states may only extend such controls in the event of "a new serious threat to their public order or their internal security".

"In the present case, Austria (...) does not seem to have demonstrated that there is a new threat," it said literally.

However, a final decision rests with the competent court in Austria (cases C-368/20 and C-369/20).

When asked on Tuesday, the Federal Ministry of the Interior said that the possible effects of the judgment for Germany were still being examined.

Police union for permanent controls

The police union does not consider permanent EU internal border controls to combat smuggling and irregular migration on the Bavarian-Austrian border to be sensible.

It is already clear that the smugglers have adjusted to the situation and are now using new routes to Germany, said Andreas Roßkopf, chairman of the Federal Police GdP district, on Wednesday in Berlin.

On the other hand, the extension of the controls was welcomed by the deputy chairwoman of the Union faction, Andrea Lindholz.

The CSU politician said it was good that Faeser was continuing the course of her predecessor Horst Seehofer (CSU) at this point, because "as long as the protection of the EU's external borders is not comprehensively and reliably guaranteed, these border controls will remain necessary".

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The Greens domestic politician Marcel Emmerich, on the other hand, called on the Federal Minister of the Interior to revise her decision - also in the light of the decision of the European Court of Justice.

"After yesterday's clear verdict, this is not legally tenable and would continue Seehofer's policy," said the member of the Bundestag.

"An end to border controls is therefore legally and politically necessary after five years." The Greens therefore wanted to "critically examine" the Ministry's renewed justification for the extension.

dpa