The European Union’s new Commissioner for home affairs, which includes the migration portfolio, will by all accounts begin the new term with a major problem that arose this week with the German government’s decision to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders – causing shock waves in the EU and Schengen Pact.
In answering press questions over the matter, Annita Hipper, the EU Commission’s spokeswoman on home affairs, migration and internal security, stated:
“According to Schengen border regulations, member-states have the authority to re-introduce internal border controls if necessary and proportionate to address significant threats to public policy or internal security,” she explained.
“The EU Commission is coordinating with Schengen authorities, who are in close contact with German authorities, as well as other member-states currently enforcing internal border controls.”
Hipper added the EU Commission was earlier informed by the German interior ministry about the decision.
German authorities have also informed the Commission that the country’s federal police is cooperating with corresponding authorities of neighboring countries based on a wide array of cross-border police cooperation, including joint patrols and joint law enforcement and customs collaboration.
Tighter controls on the German border with Austria are expected to continue until Nov. 11, and up to Dec. 15 on the land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Additionally, tighter controls and checks on the border with Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands will begin on Sept. 16 and continue until March 15.
At the same time, when asked about the Hungarian government’s plan to send third country migrants to Brussels via a one-way bus ride, Hipper said “..it is unacceptable.”
Belgian FM Lahbib
Another top EU official, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, whose reportedly among the prime candidates to become the next EU Commissioner for home affairs – which, as mentioned above, includes the migration portfolio – referred to a “provocation that contradicts European obligations.”
“Migration policy is a common challenge that must be tackled in an orderly fashion and with solidarity by all Member States,” she added, in a post on her X account.
Shortly before the European Parliament elections last June and essentially at the conclusion of the outgoing Commission’s tenure, the new pact on migration and asylum was adopted, based on the new challenges arising from the issue of migration, including the “instrumentalization” of the problem.
According to one European source, it’s much more important to have something on the table than nothing, even if it doesn’t “magically solve all problems”.
The new Pact establishes a set of rules that will contribute in managing arrivals in an orderly manner, along with what the Commission called efficient and uniform procedures and ensuring a fair distribution of burden between member-states.
