{"id":270032,"date":"2025-07-17T18:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270032\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T18:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:51:10","slug":"uk-and-germany-are-finally-confronting-immigration-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270032\/","title":{"rendered":"UK and Germany are finally confronting immigration crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was \u201ca historic day for German-British relations\u201d, Friedrich Merz said<\/a> after his first visit to the UK as German Chancellor. That\u2019s no exaggeration. Merz and his counterpart, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, have signed the first bilateral UK-Germany treaty since the Second World War. Among the crucial agreements in areas such as defence and infrastructure is a promise to tackle illegal migration to Europe together.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to be cynical about \u201cfriendship treaties\u201d. They often contain little more than warm words and symbolism. However, the agreement signed between London and Berlin today goes far beyond that, outlining 17 projects<\/a> which are specific enough to be deliverable yet sufficiently high-level to withstand changes in government on either side. Remarkably, a \u201cJoint Action Plan on Irregular Migration\u201d is a top priority, second only to defence and security cooperation.<\/p>\n

Germany has agreed to tighten its legislation on people smuggling by the end of this year, and the new law will make facilitating migrant routes to the UK a criminal offence. This will enable German authorities to crack down on activities such as storing boats intended for Channel crossings in warehouses and closing other loopholes for gangs operating in the country.<\/p>\n

This is more than a symbolic act. Approximately 37,000 people attempted<\/a> to cross the English Channel in small boats in 2024. They do so after travelling through continental Europe to reach the French coast, so solutions can\u2019t be limited to bilateral agreements between France and the UK.<\/p>\n

Illegal immigration is a pan-European issue, which requires coordinated approaches to be effectively addressed. It seems leaders are waking up to this reality now that new Right-wing parties are beginning to pose a real threat. The language in the UK-Germany treaty is remarkably robust. Common aims are listed as \u201cdeterring irregular migration to Germany and the UK\u201d and \u201cdelivering secure borders\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course, \u201ctaking back control of borders\u201d was a central Brexit promise, and it\u2019s also what the majority of German voters want, according to polling<\/a> from earlier this year. But delivering this without hampering the other aims of closer cultural, economic and security cooperation between two of the largest economies in the world is a difficult circle to square.<\/p>\n

There was an 80% drop<\/a> in German school trips to the UK following Brexit. In German airports, British citizens often face long queues because they aren\u2019t allowed to use the e-gates. Academic, political, cultural, and economic exchanges have been hindered by excessive bureaucracy and rising costs.<\/p>\n

The Bilateral Cooperation Treaty aims to strike a workable balance by facilitating mobility between citizens of both countries, without restoring pre-Brexit freedom of movement. E-gate use for UK nationals will be tested from August and rolled out for all travellers as soon as possible. Group travel for schools will become visa-free, and a Joint Expert Group will identify ways to extend this to other contexts like academia and scientific research.<\/p>\n

Such pragmatism seems a mile away from the mutual breakdown of relations post-Brexit. Crucially, though, the treaty doesn\u2019t break promises to either electorate. It separates practical cooperation between Germany and Britain from political ideology. There is a recognition that Europe faces many new challenges as a continent, most notably on defence and immigration. Merz called<\/a> security the main \u201cthread running through the treaty\u201d. Starmer, in turn, thanked him for his \u201cdecisive action\u201d on illegal migration and for \u201cdisrupting the route to the UK\u201d. Mainstream politicians are beginning to get the message from their voters: cooperation between countries with common interests isn\u2019t a license for open borders.<\/p>\n

It appears that leaders have finally come round to the more nuanced debate on immigration that their electorates have demanded for years. That\u2019s not just good news for UK-German relations, but also for democracy itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today was \u201ca historic day for German-British relations\u201d, Friedrich Merz said after his first visit to the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[802,2000,299,1945,1824,40,807,11187,980,285,94539],"class_list":{"0":"post-270032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-friedrich-merz","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-keir-starmer","15":"tag-non-classifiu00e9e","16":"tag-optional","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-small-boats"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114870084200191347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}