Arriving at the meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday 13 October, the German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, and his Austrian counterpart, Wolfgang Sobotka, called for a six-month extension on internal border controls within the Schengen area, as currenlty operated by five countries, including four member states.
The European Commission is due to make this decision by 12 November, in line with a recommendation adopted by the Council on 12 May. At the time, Schengen member states adopted a draft recommendation from the Commission dated 4 May, which allowed Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway to carry out internal border controls due to secondary flows that could develop further, despite closing off the Western Balkans route and, at a more general level, the EU’s external border, which was judged to be insecure at the time.
The draft recommendation activating Article 29 of the Schengen Border Code authorised these countries to extend their measures for six months. The Commission explained that this decision was based on an assessment of the situation in Greece. The commissioner in charge of this issue, Dimitris Avramopoulos, stated: "We are still experiencing weak points at our external borders, we therefore have to authorise extension of the measures". Arriving in Luxembourg, De Maizière, said that “the current system allowing for these controls ends in the middle of November. I am therefore urging that we be allowed to extend it”. He provided assurances that this question would be discussed with his European counterparts in the meeting.
According to Reuters, the Austrian minister stated: "You have to see reality. In Greece, there are 50,000 refugees and many in the Balkan countries". "I therefore think it very difficult to imagine that the system will be working on 15 November and believe it’ll probably be necessary to have an extension or otherwise think of other steps", he added.
In a report published in September, the European Commission said that not all the conditions had yet been met to return to the normal functioning of the Schengen area – despite the commitment it made last March to end these internal border controls by the end of the year. The Commission indicated that the secondary flow of migrants remained a problem and that these controls were justified as long as the European Border and Coast Guard was not fully operational. Other countries, such as France, would like to return to the spirit of Schengen but are not expected to oppose the extension of these measures. Nonetheless, according to one source, some countries (such as Slovenia) are said to have criticised these measures. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)