A new (temporary) wall in the heart of the Schengen Area

Written by Martin Mondelli

What’s happening with German borders? Is it new?

On September the 16th 2024 Europe woke up with an unusual piece of news: international borders were reintroduced in Germany. Even though some citizens were not expecting this to happen anytime soon, for Swiss, Austrians, Czechs and Poles this situation was not new. In fact, border controls that were introduced on October the 16th 2023 are still in place. Even if they were set up to last until the last months of 2024, the German government has announced that they are not meant to be taken down in the near future. When checking the figures one may notice that these borders are not only symbolic or a formality, far from there, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, the German Federal Police has refused the entry of 30.000 people.

“the German Federal Police has refused the entry of 30.000 people.”

Background, Germany’s policy in the past decade and what has changed

Hence, it is a fair question to ask: why is it happening right now? According to the European Commission and Elsa Conesa, the correspondent of Le Monde in Berlin, what is happening is an answer to the open border policy of former Chancellor Angela Merkel. In fact, during her government, the number of asylum seekers grew and in particular in 2015, around 1.1 million asylum seekers arrived in Germany. Nowadays, the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), the far-right party in Germany who won the state election in the state of Thuringia, is gaining in popularity in some areas of Germany and it has an opposed view about immigration as stated in their manifesto:

« We demand a paradigm shift regarding [among other points] 1) the influx of asylum seekers, 2) the way how the free movement of people is handled inside the EU».

This growth in power of the AfD might be putting some pressure on the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz regarding asylum seekers, in particular after it granted asylum to one million Ukrainians. Moreover, the decision might have been influenced by a knife attack perpetrated by a suspected asylum seeker in Solingen, North-Rien Westphalia and claimed by the Islamic State where three people were murdered.

Only Germany or a trend among EU countries?

However, Germany is not the only country that has reintroduced their borders, according to the European Commission: Austria, Norway, Denmark, France, Sweden, Slovenia and Italy have reinforced theirs this year and for some of these countries the duration of this decision goes up to next year. Nevertheless, most of these borders do not concern the whole territory of each country but a particular neighbour. The two main arguments why these countries are informing Brussels that they are closing their borders are related to:

On the one hand, in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war some countries are accusing Russia of espionage and sabotage alongside with the increase in the number of Ukrainian refugees. On the other hand, the Middle East and Africa armed conflicts and the « growing presence of criminal organisations networks facilitating irregular immigration ». Once again, one of the main arguments is immigration.

In fact, according to the same institution, « The Schengen Borders Code (SBC) provides Member States with the capability of temporary reintroducing border control at the internal border » following as a last resort but it suggests to avoid this decision and to do it for the bare minimum time.

Let’s now talk about the economic impact of these decisions and what could be the impact of these policies in the long run

“Quoting a study done by the Bertelsmann Stiftung in 2016, the estimated impact of reintroducing the internal borders within the EU would have been 470 billion euros between 2016 and 2025. According to this study, due to the increase in prices related to the reintroduction of the borders, economic growth would decelerate and economic losses could go from 77 to 235 billion euros for Germany and from 80.5 to 244 billion for France within the same period..”

In fact, these losses would be explained by: an increase of costs related to waiting time (which would translate into an increase in labor cost for companies), in stocks, and in production costs. These would translate into an increase in prices which would reduce the consumer’s demand and decrease price competitiveness in international markets, which would lead to a decrease in exports. Moreover, the decrease in demand and exports would lead to a decrease in investment. Hence, less economic growth.

What does the German government have to say?

Now according to Germany’s Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, the current border controls « have been going well so for some time now » and states that the new ones will work similarly. Furthermore, they expect the impact for commuters, businesses and commerce to be « as little as possible ». The Ministry will ask all travellers and commuters to present an official identification (ID or passport) and for non-EU nationals their visa (if necessary) and meet all the requirements to enter German soil or else their entry could be denied.

Tensions among EU countries?

Regarding the decision of the government, the international reaction went from Austria who announced that « it will not accept any migrant who are turned back » to Poland who qualified the decision of the German government as « unacceptable ». Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed on September the 11th, « We will be asking in the coming hours other countries that will be affected by these decisions by Berlin to urgently consult on action within the European Union on this issue ».

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