Earlier this week, the Commission told Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, non-EU Norway, Slovenia and Sweden to gradually lift their border controls. The 10th country is Poland, which was not asked by the Commission to lift its border controls.
“[Illegal migration] numbers … are going down. We’re on the right track. The reforms have been done. The external borders are better protected. The returns regulation has been decided. … It’s the right time to gradually phase out these border controls,” Commissioner Magnus Brunner said Thursday ahead of a meeting with home affairs ministers in Luxembourg.
The visa-free Schengen area “must work, it is one of the European Union’s greatest achievements,” he argued.
But Dobrindt said Germany’s border checks are “working” and “remain necessary.”
The German minister said the bloc’s external border protection “must be significantly improved.” He added that the countries in which migrants first arrive must take back people who traveled to other countries in the bloc, and in return, the new mechanism to send support to countries that receive the most migrants must be up and running quickly.
“All of that must work together. They all influence one another,” Dobrindt said.
