Brussels, 16/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - During a visit of the Danish foreign affairs minister, Lene Espersen, to Berlin on Wednesday, the German minister of foreign affairs, Guido Westerwelle, again criticised Denmark's decision to re-establish customs controls, AFP reported. During a press conference he declared: “We are very critical of Denmark's decision to re-establish permanent border controls at the border with Germany… we will continue with our dialogue on this subject… it is necessary to continue discussing this matter”.
Espersen, however, provided assurances to her counterpart during this visit that there would not be any permanent controls of people or passports at the German-Danish borders and that setting up customs controls would be done in keeping with the Schengen agreements. The controls were aimed at “combating the entry of illegal goods and drugs” onto Danish territory. Following her visit with Westerwelle, Espersen is due to meet her Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, in Stockholm on Friday, in addition to her Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, in Brussels on 20 June, to smooth out any other doubts on the matter.
On 11 May, Denmark announced without any preliminary consultation with other countries concerned, that it intended to re-establish permanent border controls along its national borders with Germany and Sweden. On 13 May, the president of the European Commission also sent a letter to Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen, expressing his concerns. The Commission says that the two parties are still in contact and in an “information exchange phase”. The project has still not yet been applied and its financial envelope was expected to be adopted on 10 June but opposition meant that the vote had to be postponed. (S.P./transl.fl)