Why are EU countries closing their borders with each other?

From Portugal to Poland, the EU’s Schengen Agreement is supposed to allow the free movement of people across much of continental Europe without a single border check. But many EU countries have recently reintroduced ‘temporary controls’, leading to questions as to whether a core fundamental of the European Union is collapsing.

Devised in the 1980s, the Schengen Agreement abolished most border checks between most EU member states (the UK and Ireland never signed up), plus a few others, like Norway. As the European Union expanded, Schengen has allowed most travellers to roam unchecked. But critics have long raised concerns about such an open system.

Terrorist attacks, with suspects fleeing abroad, but within the Schengen Zone, undetected, and surges in migration, have highlighted its weaknesses.

But it was the Covid pandemic which revealed how fragile the system had become politically. Within weeks, in March 2020, a cascade of member states closed their borders with their neighbours and stopped, for a while, cooperating effectively with each other.

It was the most extensive reintroduction of border checks within the EU in decades. And it led to fears in Brussels that a precedent had been set.

Although borders were eventually reopened, ever since the critics’ voices have been getting louder and ad hoc border restrictions have become more frequent.

Under the Schengen Agreement, temporary closures and spot checks are allowed.

The European Commission keeps a log of where and why restrictions are in place. These “must be applied [only] as a last resort measure, in exceptional situations”.

Sweden, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Norway, Denmark and France all currently claim to be in exceptional circumstances.

The reasons given are varied. Amongst others, Sweden blames the Hamas attack in Israel for increasing a “risk of serious violence”, Germany says it is necessary in the face of “irregular migration and migrant smuggling”, whilst France uses the excuse of the Olympic Games. Even though the tournament finished more than a month ago.

And although there may be real reasons and real threats, the main driver is politics.

The decision of Germany to reintroduce checks at all of its borders last month has caused particular consternation.

The German government said it was reacting after an asylum seeker stabbed to death three people in the town of Solingen. The left-leaning coalition is under pressure and, despite announcing tougher migration policies and the ‘temporary’ border checks, nonetheless suffered a series of embarrassing results in regional elections in September.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party came first in two east German states, and a tight second place in a third.

In the face of fears that Schengen is falling apart, MEPs hauled the outgoing Home Affairs Commissioner, Ylva Johansson, before the European Parliament last night.

Apparently going against the position of her own government, German Social Democrat MEP, Birgit Sippel, criticised the reintroduction of border controls as “a risk not just for economy, for jobs, but also for European cohesion”.

“The German minister has assured me that they will do everything to minimise the impact on cross-border traffic and avoid permanent checks as much as possible,” Ms Johansson insisted.

But there is no sign that the German checks are going to be wound up any time soon.

And in France, the new right-wing government has hinted that it too favours tighter controls. The far right, holding Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s feet to the fire, is capitalising on the moment.

“This is the end of a myth: Europe without frontiers”, crowed National Rally’s leader, Jordan Bardella MEP, last night.

Adding to the fears that Schengen is being quietly deconstructed was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s choice of an Austrian for as the next Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration.

The Austrian government now routinely diverts all traffic off the motorway to crawl past a group of police gathered in a car park at the border. Mostly, vehicles are quickly waved on through.

“The border-free Schengen Area guarantees free movement to more than 425 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists, exchange students or for business purposes,” the European Commission proclaims on its website.

Increasingly, that is simply not the case.