On Tuesday 25 October, Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos announced in Strasbourg that the European Commission has decided to allow five countries, four of them EU member states, to extend controls along internal Schengen borders for a further three months from 12 November 2016. The countries in question – Germany, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Norway – are asked to look into the option of implementing alternative measures.
In its roadmap for a return to Schengen, published in March, the European Commission said it wanted to return to normal functioning of Schengen by the end of November 2016, but it says that the current situation justifies the extension of internal controls.
In a joint letter sent on 20 October to Commissioners Frans Timmermans and Dimitris Avramopoulos, the five countries’ interior ministers called for the extension because temporary controls were otherwise due to end on 12 November according to a recommendation adopted by ministers on 12 May. The Commission has gone along with this in part, recommending a three-month extension rather than the initially authorised six months. It asks them to report on the situation each month and to analyse the situation at their borders each week as a precondition for being allowed to continue with the controls.
Despite a sharp fall in the numbers of illegal migrants arriving and in the number of requests for asylum, thanks to uninterrupted application of the EU-Turkey declaration, the number of illegal migrants in Greece remains high, as it does in the member states most hit by secondary movements of illegal migrants out of Greece, the Commission explains. It adds that the lifting of temporary controls could therefore, given the current state of affairs, lead to an increase in secondary movements, and that the large number of requests for asylum submitted in the past year, along with the requests that are still being made, are a very heavy burden on civil services and bodies in the five Schengen Area countries to which the Commission’s recommendation applies.
The Commission explains therefore that the exceptional circumstances that led to adopting the Council recommendation on 12 May 2016 continue, and it is therefore justified to allow the member states in question to extend controls along internal borders for a proportionate amount of time. However, before opting to maintain controls, the member states in question should examine whether other measures could produce the same effect as border controls, and should brief the other member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission about the results of this assessment, the Commission explains. The member states that decide to continue carrying out internal border controls in application of the recommendation unveiled today, should also reassess each week the need, frequency and duration of controls, adjusting their intensity to suit the level of threat to which they are designed to respond and, where appropriate, phase them out. The member states are also required to publish detailed monthly reports on the controls carried out and whether they are needed.
The three-month extension covers the same controls as the 12 May extension – for Austria, controls along its land border with Hungary and the land border with Slovenia; for Germany, along its land border with Austria; for Denmark, at Danish ports used for crossings to Germany and along its land border with Germany; for Sweden, at Swedish ports in the South and West Police Regions and at the port of Öresund; for Norway, at Norwegian ports ferrying passengers to Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
Under Article 29 of the Schengen Border Code, member states can temporarily carry out internal border controls for a maximum of two years in total. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)