Ref. Ares(2019)6921356 - 08/11/2019
Courtesy Translation
Mr Frans Timmermans
First Vice-President
of the European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200/Berl 12/78
1049 Bruxelles/Brussels
BELGIUM
Mr Dimitris Avramopoulos
Commissioner
for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship
European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200/Wetstraat 200
1049 Bruxelles/Brussels
BELGIUM
Mr Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175
1048 Bruxelles/Brussels
BELGIUM
Mr Antonio Tajani
President of the European Parliament
Bât. Altiero Spinelli
60 rue Wiertz/Wiertzstraat 60
1047 Bruxelles/Brussels
BELGIUM
To the
Home Affairs Ministers
of the EU and the Schengen Contracting States
Dear Vice-President,
dear Commissioner,
dear Secretary-General,
dear President,
dear Colleagues,
Border-free travel within the Schengen area is one of the greatest achievements
to be maintained. I therefore expressly support the efforts and measures
intended to restore an area without internal border controls in the long run.
However, this requires effective protection of the external borders, full
application of instruments under asylum law (such as the Dublin III Regulation
and Eurodac) and efforts to counter irregular secondary migration.
Thanks to numerous European and national measures, we have been able to
reduce the number of irregular migrants arriving at our borders below the levels
of 2015 and 2016. At the same time, we can see that the Federal Republic of
Germany is still strongly affected by the irregular secondary migration of
persons mainly coming from the south-eastern and southern Schengen borders.
In Germany, we still register between 13,000 and 14,000 asylum applicants per
month. Given the observations of the border authorities, the German-Austrian
land border continues to be the hot spot for irregular secondary migration to the
federal territory, which is why this area continues to be in the focus of border
police measures. Given the apprehensions at the external borders and along
the transit routes, we currently do not expect irregular secondary migration to
effectively decrease anytime soon. Entering the federal territory illegally is a
punishable offence. The persistently large number of these crimes and
smuggling activities represents a threat to public security and order, also in the
context of possible related and subsequent crime. This applies also in view of
the fact that a significant number of third-country nationals come from crisis and
conflict regions whose geographic location suggests that they have travelled via
the Eastern Mediterranean route. Furthermore, the general security situation
remains tense, as past terrorist attacks in Germany and elsewhere in Europe
have shown. Germany is part of the common European threat area and
continues to be a target of international terrorism. The fact that the countries of
the Schengen area continue to be attacked shows that the perpetrators take
advantage of the freedom in the area without border controls to our detriment.
For these reasons, the migration routes from these crisis and conflict regions
are of particular importance.
Having considered the situation carefully and following the previous letters
about the current internal border controls, I have come to the conclusion that
internal border controls at the German-Austrian land border are still necessary.
On the basis of Art. 25 to 27 of Regulation 2016/399 (Schengen Borders Code),
I have therefore ordered the temporary reintroduction of internal border controls
for a six-month period starting on 12 May 2018 for reasons of migration and
security policy.
Please rest assured that the measures taken by the border police are flexible
and adjusted to the given situation and that possible negative impacts on cross-
border travel will be limited to the minimum necessary for security and will occur
only temporarily at selected locations also in the future. Furthermore, we will not
take measures to direct cross-border traffic only via a small number of border
crossing points. As before, we will continue our close and trusting cross-border
cooperation and coordination with our Austrian partners and domestic traffic
and police authorities.
Yours sincerely,
(signed)
Horst Seehofer