The German government will appeal a court ruling that found its border controls violate the EU’s Schengen Agreement, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Tuesday.
At a meeting with the interior ministers of German-speaking countries in Luxembourg, Dobrindt played down Monday’s verdict by the Koblenz Administrative Court as a judgement by a first-instance court that was only applicable to an individual case.
The case was brought by a law professor whose identity was checked by border police as he crossed from Luxembourg to Germany in June 2025.
Checks have been in place on all German borders since September 16, 2024. They have been extended three times, most recently until September 2026.
However, the court found that the extension of border checks from March to September 2025 was in violation of the Schengen rules, under which member states are only allowed to carry out border controls when public order or internal security are threatened.
While countries in the Schengen Area are entitled to make their own assessment of the threat situation, the court said the German state’s justification for its action did not have a “sound factual basis.”
But Dobrindt, at the meeting in the Luxembourgish town of Bourglinster, insisted that the judges’ ruling would have no impact on the border controls. “These internal border controls will carry on for as long as we consider necessary,” the minister said.
The measures have proved unpopular with Germany’s neighbours, especially in Luxembourg, which has a large population of cross-border workers.