Europe's free movement in question as Germany extends border controls
Germany plans to keep controls at all nine of its land borders until March 2027, extending a policy that has already sparked a wider European debate over the future of the border-free Schengen area.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has notified the European Commission that the current controls will be extended until mid-March 2027. Unless the Commission objects, the checks will continue automatically, meaning travellers crossing Germany’s land borders are likely to face inspections well into next year.
The decision is controversial because routine checks between Schengen countries go against one of the bloc’s central principles: allowing people to travel freely between member states without regular internal border controls. Germany first introduced checks at all of its borders on September 16, 2024, and has extended them several times since then.
The European Commission has previously urged Germany and eight other Schengen countries to begin phasing out their internal border controls. EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner argued that new measures at the bloc’s external borders should allow countries to gradually remove checks within the Schengen area. Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Léon Gloden has even called for Germany’s controls to be suspended immediately.
Brussels has pointed to several developments designed to strengthen Europe’s external borders. These include the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, new screening and security procedures, and the Entry/Exit System (EES), which became fully operational in April 2026. The forthcoming European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is also expected to strengthen border management.
Dobrindt, however, argues that migration pressure remains too high for Germany to relax its controls. He recently pointed to the situation in Ceuta, the Spanish exclave in North Africa, where tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco. Germany says such developments demonstrate the continuing risk of irregular migration into Europe.
The prolonged controls are now raising a much bigger question for the EU: how long can temporary internal border checks remain in place before they begin to undermine the very idea of Schengen? The European Commission has stressed that while EU law allows temporary controls under specific circumstances, they should remain necessary, proportionate and limited in duration.