Border control with Austria: tightening is beckoning
By historical standards, the limitless freedom was a short-lived pleasure: From the end of 1997, border controls between Germany and Austria were abolished as part of the Schengen Agreement. 18 years later they were reintroduced – supposedly temporarily. But to this day, checks are carried out around the clock on the three motorway border crossings between Bavaria and Austria. This could continue, especially since the SPD is now also playing along.
The Bavarian Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer (CSU), who wanted to curb the unhindered influx of refugees by stationing police posts on the border with the neighboring country, deserves the credit for the almost seven-year-long abolition of unhindered freedom of travel between the two German-speaking EU member states. The later Federal Minister of the Interior called the chaotic situation triggered by the Syrian war “rule of injustice”.
Manhunt near Lindau
Permanent checkpoints were set up on the autobahns near Passau, at the Freilassing and Salzburg crossings, and near Kiefersfelden, across from the Tyrolean town of Kufstein. In 2015, the federal police and Bavarian politicians identified areas as relevant to refugee immigration. On the one hand, people came via the Balkan route.
This affected Passau and Freilassing. Kiefersfelden is on the route from northern Italy via the Brenner Pass towards Munich. Bavaria’s westernmost motorway border crossing at Lake Constance near Lindau was classified as negligible in comparison. Here, those responsible left it to the concept of veiled manhunts, i.e. controls independent of suspicion in a border area 30 kilometers wide. Elsewhere, the police are not allowed to carry out such identity checks without a recognizable reason.
When the first provisional arrangements made of containers and roof racks were erected at the locations of the constant checks, the facilities became independent. The exceptions to the Schengen Borders Code have been repeatedly extended – most recently until May 11 of this year.
The Schengen Agreement is one of the most important EU agreements – the elimination of the barriers between the vast majority of member states is considered to create identity for the Union. Not much of that is left at the three Bavarian border crossings. Federal police officers routinely ask for IDs to be shown. The spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced these days that “a decision has not yet been made” on the continuation of internal border controls beyond May 11th. Border control-free travel within the Schengen area is “a central pillar of the European unification process that must be preserved”.
Vague statements from the Ministry of the Interior
But the will to actually dismantle the controls from May of this year is not discernible on the part of the governments in Berlin and Munich. “It should stay that way, that these are exceptional situations,” said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) during a visit to Vienna.
Which should probably mean at the same time: From May 11th, the controls will not be dismantled. Faeser’s spokesman interpreted the minister’s position as “trying to return to Schengen internal borders free of border controls as soon as this is justifiable in terms of migration and security policy”.
Border controls are still urgently needed for reasons of migration and security policy.
Joachim Herrmann (CSU), Minister of the Interior in Bavaria
After the SPD took over the interior department at the federal level, the Bavarian Social Democrats also seem to be in less of a hurry to abolish controls. These are “currently still necessary,” said the chairman of the SPD in the Bavarian state parliament, Florian von Brunn, on request. And:
This is an exception and must be ended as soon as possible.
Special case Bavarian border police
The greatest resistance to the withdrawal of the police from the border crossings still comes from Bavaria. In his view, border controls are “still urgent” for reasons of migration and security policy, said Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU).
This applies regardless of the current situation in Ukraine because “adequate protection of the EU’s external borders is still not guaranteed”. The Bavarian border police picked up significantly more people last year. Unauthorized entries have been recorded since 1781, 37 percent more than in the previous year, as well as 181 cases of smuggling (up 47 percent).
Herrmann insists on a Bavarian special approach to the border police plus
The Bavarian border police is a special case in Germany. It was actually dissolved in 1998 as superfluous. The federal police then serve as border guards. In 2018, the Free State re-established it as part of the State Police. The CSU-led government under Prime Minister Markus Söder was apparently primarily concerned with giving citizens a greater sense of security.
However, their revival has been controversial. The Greens are suing the Bavarian Constitutional Court. This has resulted in the role of the White-Blue Border Police being reduced. With a few exceptions, they may only be active in veil manhunts and carry out random checks. She does this in parallel with the Federal Police.
criticism from Austria
Bavaria does not want to let go of its own border police. This is also a hidden criticism of Austrian security policy. This is not the only reason why the reaction from the neighboring country is correspondingly harsh. The Tyrolean Transport Minister Ingrid Felipe (Greens) believes that the constant border controls between neighbors in a united Europe are simply “inappropriate and make little sense”.
The controls, which have been maintained by the German side for six years, “contradict the European idea and create unnecessary traffic jams and dangerous situations on the Austrian side of the Inntalautobahn”, criticized the Tyrolean government politician on request.
We don’t need a ‘Bavarian Fortress’, we need freedom to travel in the heart of Europe.
Katharina Schulze, Chairwoman of the Greens in the Bavarian Parliament
Felipe receives support from the Bavarian Greens. It is wrong to constantly extend the exemption for border controls, said the chairwoman of the Greens in the Bavarian state parliament, Katharina Schulze. Brandenburg also has no border controls, although many refugees there come to Germany via Poland. “We don’t need a ‘Bavarian Fortress’, we need freedom to travel in the heart of Europe,” emphasizes the Bavarian Green Party politician.
Checks also at borders with Poland and the Czech Republic?
The cementing of the provisional border controls between Bavaria and Austria has long annoyed the President of the Pan-European Union Germany, Bernd Posselt. The former CSU MEP is still a member of the CSU party executive and calls the controls “actually illegal”. Exceptions to free travel between the contracting states of the Schengen Agreement are only intended for short, temporary extreme situations, “but have lasted for seven years with varying reasons”.
The Federal Chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), Rainer Wendt, has once again cheered on the border controls in an allegedly free Europe with his demand for permanent controls to be set up at the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic because of the Ukraine war. The police union (GdP) in Bavaria can make friends with this proposal.
Such controls are considered “targeted”, said the Bavarian GdP chairman Peter Pytlik. Despite all willingness to help the war refugees, “we would also like to know who is coming to our country and whether there is a need for protection or an entitlement”. However, the police had “been at the personal capacity limit for a long time”.
Herrmann thinks about internal German controls
Pan-European President Posselt sees things differently. Although, according to the EU decision, the refugees from Ukraine will enjoy complete freedom of movement for the next few months, “entire bus landings by these tormented people and their idealistic helpers, for example in Freilassing, would take several hours, which are unreasonable”.
The CSU politician appealed to Federal Interior Minister Faeser “to end this state of affairs more quickly and also to expect the Schengen spirit to return beyond the Ukraine crisis”. “We don’t mean that people who are fleeing the war also have to camp out in the cold at the border,” von Brunn, head of the SPD parliamentary group, also rejected additional stationary controls.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior is not thinking of setting up further border checkpoints because of the Ukraine refugees. There are “no considerations” about this, emphasized its spokesman. However, the federal police have tightened their manhunt on the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic. Most of the people from Ukraine identified by the federal police have a biometric passport, which entitles them to enter Germany without a visa anyway.
Bavaria’s Minister of the Interior, Herrmann, is now considering new controls. “For security reasons” he calls for identity checks to be carried out at all German internal borders between June 14th and 29th. Reason: The G7 summit taking place in Upper Bavaria (June 26th to 28th). Because of the aggravated global political situation, one had to reckon with a “greater potential of chaotic people who want to enter from abroad just to organize riots in the vicinity of the summit,” warned the CSU politician.