In Malta on Thursday 26 January, the German home affairs minister, Thomas de Maizière, called for the prolongation - beyond the month of May - of the internal border controls carried out on the border with Austria.
The day before, the European Commission authorised the prolongation up to that date of the internal controls currently being carried out by five European countries, including four member states (Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway).
At the informal meeting of the European home affairs ministers, de Maizière explained that he wanted to extend the controls for longer and to use a different legal base provided for in the 'Schengen' borders code to do this, specifically the legal base used by France, which also allows it to carry out controls on its internal borders on the grounds of the terrorist threat.
At this stage, the four capitals concerned by the Commission's decision are justifying the measures taken by migration flows and serious shortcomings of the external borders of the EU. However, Germany, which was hit by a terrorist attack on Berlin in December, wishes to be able to invoke other reasons. The online edition of the newspaper Die Welt reported on Thursday that de Maizière had called for controls to be extended until the end of 2017, but German spokespersons in Brussels were unable to confirm this information.
On Wednesday, the Commission reiterated that this change in justification being considered by Germany was possible. For instance, France notified the reintroduction and subsequent continuation of controls on its internal borders on the grounds of reasons related to terrorist threats.
The institution also stated that although the current legal framework was enough to remedy the problems faced up to now, it is currently still assessing whether it is adequate to deal with changing phenomena that threaten security. The Commission therefore stands ready to revise the 'Schengen' borders code to bring it into line with threats related to terrorism and may table the matter ahead of the informal summit of Malta of 3 February, a Commission source said on Thursday lunchtime. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)