Greece wary of Germany border controls: PM
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
Greece has joined EU states expressing concern after Germany tightened controls in response to several suspected Islamist attacks, with its prime minister questioning the move Thursday.
“The answer cannot be the unilateral abolition of Schengen and to essentially pass the buck to countries located on the outer borders of Europe,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Talk Radio.
Germany on Monday said temporary controls would be extended to land borders with all nine of its EU neighbours, even though it is part of the free-movement Schengen area.
These would limit migration and “protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and serious crime”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told a press conference.
The controls on the borders with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark will come into force on September 16 for an initial six months.
They will add to temporary checks Germany already has in place along its borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
The European Union on Tuesday cautioned that border checks within the bloc could be introduced only as an “exceptional” measure.
The European Commission said that member states were allowed to take such a step to address “a serious threat”, but that the measures needed to be “necessary and proportionate”.
Germany and Greece are both part of Europe’s Schengen area, which includes 25 of the 27 EU member states, as well as other countries, and allows free travel between them without border controls.
The commission said it was notified by Germany of the temporary restrictions and would assess them.
Brussels and Berlin were in touch over the issue, it said.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has faced rising pressure to curb irregular migrant numbers and crack down on extremists after several suspected Islamist attacks.
Late last month, three people were killed in a knife rampage in the western city of Solingen, in which the Syrian suspect had been slated for deportation but had evaded law enforcement.
“Germany had an extremely tolerant and, I would say, socially generous policy towards immigrants, which is now creating great social reactions,” Mitsotakis said Thursday.
Greece has been among EU states facing major migratory pressure for nearly a decade, mainly via neighbouring Turkey.
Source: AFP
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