On Tuesday 25 October, the European Commission will submit its decision on whether to extend internal border controls in the Schengen area, as currently practised in five countries including four member states. Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have moreover written a joint letter on this to Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, calling for these measures to be extended, as authorised under Article 29 of the Schengen Code.
It is on the basis of this article that the Commission agreed in May 2016, to authorise these internal border controls, as an exceptional measure, given the tensions created on the Western Balkans route.
Last September, the Commission stated in a progress report that the migration situation as a whole was under control but that the situation was still fragile enough to justify these internal border controls. The Commission particularly highlighted the persistent risk of secondary migrant flows and the fact that the European coast guards and border guards were not yet up and running.
On 13 October, the respective German and Austrian ministers for the interior, Thomas de Maizière and Wolfgang Sobotka, spoke in Luxembourg in favour of extending these controls, and the European summit on 20 and 21 October recorded this principle, although it highlighted the fact that these controls had to be adjusted on the basis of current requirements. In a roadmap published in March, the Commission indicated that these internal controls were expected to expire at the end of November so that normal functional operations in the Schengen area of free movement could resume. On Tuesday 25, it is therefore possible that the Commission could decide to extend these controls by three months but nobody was able to confirm this possibility on Monday. Article 29 of the Schengen Border Code stipulates, however, that extensions can only be allowed for periods of up to six months and for a maximum total period of two years. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)