BERLIN – The German government’s narrative that its border controls cause no disruption and improve security is false, said Luxembourg’s Interior Minister Léon Gloden as his country increases pressure on Berlin to reverse course. 

“The border controls are mostly tokenism,” Léon Gloden, Luxembourg’s interior minister from the centre-right Christian Social People’s Party (CSV), told Euractiv. “They harm Luxembourg and they harm Germany and achieve little – that is my conclusion.” 

Germany triggered an outcry among its neighbours after it re-implemented controls at many of its borders last autumn following a series of violent attacks linked to migrants. 

The stricter checks came on top of existing controls at borders with Austria, Poland, Czechia and Switzerland, introduced in October 2023 to reduce stubbornly high asylum applications. In ongoing coalition talks, Germany’s likely next government has committed to step up controls.

For Luxembourg, Germany’s western neighbour, that prospect smacks of pointless politicking, after almost a year under the new checks.

Gloden believes that the measure threatens Europe’s border-free Schengen travel area, the lifeblood of the EU’s second-smallest member, situated between Germany, France, and Belgium. Some 225,000 people enter Luxembourg every day to work in key sectors such as health and finance.

But as Schengen‘s 40th anniversary approaches in June, the past year has seen more internal border controls than at any point since the treaty entered into force. Schengen members have tightened border security as migration into the EU picked up intermittently after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This has pushed Luxembourg’s interior minister into the role of one of Schengen’s few remaining champions. He says that Germany has failed to live up to its promise to prevent congestion and other externalities.

“I get complaints almost daily from commuters who say they are questioning whether they will still come to Luxembourg to work. (…) Many Luxembourgers say that they no longer travel to Trier [Germany], for example, to go shopping.” 

By contrast, France’s sporadic spot checks, more or less in place since last year’s Olympics, only cause minimal disruption, Gloden said.

‘Legal criteria not met’
The minister questioned the positive security impact of Germany’s blanket controls, which Germany’s outgoing interior minister, Nancy Faeser, recently credited for a drop in asylum applications.

But the attacks that prompted Germany’s checks were likely to have been carried out by illegal migrants who had been in the country for years, Gloden pointed out.

“They didn’t travel to Germany via the Schengen motorway on a Monday morning and then carried out an attack in the afternoon,” he said.

Germany’s setup, which focuses on two permanent checkpoints along two motorways, leaves “umpteen opportunities to enter the country via smaller bridges”, Gloden said, adding: “This idea of permanent checkpoints is absurd.” 

He recommended visits on-site, as “politicians in Berlin currently seem completely unaware that these controls (…) are useless.”

Faeser, with whom he shares a “very friendly, good relationship”, has shown “no real willingness” to make adjustments in talks, Gloden said. 

Given the disagreement, Luxembourg decided in February to lodge a complaint with the European Commission against Germany’s latest extension of border controls.

Under Schengen rules, controls must be justified as proportionate when they are renewed every six months. According to Gloden’s reasoning, Germany’s controls “do not meet the legal criteria”.

He argues that Berlin “banks on border controls to show that Germany is doing something” following a series of high-profile crimes involving migrants that has left many Germans feeling less safe.  But the better solution would be to pursue European solutions, such as improved controls at the EU’s external borders, he said.

After talks with EU Home Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner, Gloden is optimistic that his concerns will be heard.

“Now the Commission must act as guardian of the treaties,” he said.

Pushing back against pushbacks
Gloden pins some expectations on the next German government, which is likely to be led by Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats (CDU), the sister party of Gloden’s CSV.

That could make things easier, according to Gloden, who increased the pressure on Merz.

“I hope that the new government understands that border controls are not a solution (…) [and] that these border controls will be abolished,” he said.

But despite Merz’s emphasis on European cooperation, he is unlikely to budge. Controversially, asylum seekers are even to be systematically turned away at the border “in coordination with European neighbours”.

But any plans to return migrants to their countries of origin without the explicit consent of their governments would be a deal-breaker for Luxembourg.

“It is against EU law to simply push back illegal immigrants unilaterally. I’m quite sure of that,” Gloden said. “It could happen (…) but Germany would not be doing itself any favours if it started to reject unilaterally.” 

Big party or funeral service?
Ultimately, Gloden believes the attack on the Schengen area, one of Europe’s “greatest achievements alongside the euro”, also harms Europe.

When he served as mayor of the border town of Grevesmacher during the COVID-19 pandemic, he witnessed the damage that border checks can do. Germany closed its borders to prevent the spread of the virus and had armed police officers guard the border bridges. Many Luxembourgers with relatives on the other side of the border were prevented from seeing loved ones on their deathbed. 

“I thought that people would have understood after COVID that border controls are not the way to go,” Gloden said. 

He added: “For many people, when a sign at an international airport says ‘Schengen Exit’, it really means freedom and democracy.”

“We must not allow for borders to rise again in the minds of our citizens.” 

But Gloden remains “optimistic” that Schengen will reach its 50th anniversary, not least because this year’s accession of Bulgaria and Romania shows that the vision is alive.

He has another incentive for keeping his hopes up: Michel Gloden, the mayor of the Schengen pact’s namesake town, a small, wine-growing municipality by Luxembourg’s south-eastern border, is his cousin.

Léon has promised Michel Gloden a party to celebrate Schengen’s anniversary on 14 June.

“I still hope that it will be a big party and not a funeral service,” he said.  

(de)