German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday praised the Schengen Agreement, which led to internal borders among most European Union member states being removed to allow free movement within the bloc.
Saturday marks 40 years since the agreement was signed.
“The Schengen Agreement is unique, the foundation of our free Europe. It should stay that way: We want a strong European internal market without restrictions,” Merz said on X.
“This requires secure external borders, implementation of the new migration rules, and effective cooperation,” he added.
The chancellor, who took office last month, has sought to clamp down on irregular migration to Germany amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment in his country and a far-right movement that has been gaining strength in recent years.
Germany has reinstated police controls on roads and railways along many of its borders.
At a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement in Schengen, Luxembourg, the premier of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Alexander Schweitzer, said the federal government’s recently imposed border checks must not become permanent.
“They are not agreed as a permanent measure, they are not designed to be permanent,” Alexander Schweitzer said of the border checks.
The Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 by Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Today, some 29 countries with around 420 million inhabitants belong to the border and customs-free zone.
“Schengen is a historic achievement of today’s Europe,” Schweitzer said. “We must not throw Europe and what we have achieved in Europe out like a baby with the bath water,” he added, while emphasizing that he was not opposed to “local, temporary, well-justified border controls.”