Interview: border controls | Stern.de

Poland has now reintroduced it in response to German border controls. Does the EU threaten a domino effect that threatens the Schengen area?

Raphael Bossong: A prediction is difficult. With a domino effect, unlike the German government, you do not know where the stones fall. It may be that there is a imitation effect and introducing one or two other EU countries border controls. But I do not see the Federal Government’s desired effect that the EU countries agree on further tightening the rules of responsibility for asylum applications.

I take care of other things: First, the appeal to Article 72 in the contract on the working method of the European Union (TFEU), which explains a “national emergency” in order not to have to apply the European rules to asylum and migration issues. That can find imitators. And on the other hand, the booming is silent on the part of the EU Commission. If every EU country can do what it wants and there are no consequences, the Schengen area is in danger-at the latest in the next crisis.

Is the Dublin III Agreement now takes revenge that affects states with an EU outer border more affected by asylum procedures?

That is one of the structural problems of EU migration policy. The current regulation directs states not to register possible asylum seekers so that they move on and put their first application in other countries.

That is not a solution, but at least reinforces solidarity between the EU countries in migration. At least it is an introduction to a regulated procedure. But right -wing populist governments like in Italy remain a problem. The country has not resumed asylum seekers at all for a year. This struggle with hard bandages of right -wing populist governments for one’s own interests makes it difficult to discuss migration – especially when the population has the impression that this works.

How do you see the example of the USA and its use against illegal migration?

President Donald Trump sets ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcementa kind of intervention force for the Ministry of Homeland Security, Note d. Red.) not only against illegal. But dealing with migration also shows the constitution of a society. This “hardness” harms the basic consensus of a society and ultimately breaks it. I also see the risk in Germany that social principles and the separation of powers are questioned.

What could a common European solution look like?

In any case, we need regulated procedures at the external borders or in third countries. The number of asylum seekers currently take off, but this is more of a coincidence in the extended European neighborhood and not a consequence of internal border controls. We do not know what triggers the reduction in US development aid in crisis regions and how the situation in Ukraine develops. Until the next crisis, we should have the migration debate less polarized in Europe and have found a common basis for expanding legal migration. Trust, solidarity and legal loyalty of the EU countries must come back to the fore.

Are the border controls rather helpful or rather a hindrance on the way to such an amicable solution?

Germany and Poland are more likely to be driven domestically in the introduction of border controls. It is difficult to arouse a common, cooperative spirit of the EU. The question that the federal government should now answer is: How do we get out of there? Chancellor Merz is currently more of an argument with the fact that the border controls are necessary until the EU has regulated migration at some point. We have to get out of this rhetorical dead end. For this I think the border controls are a hindrance.