The newest introduction by Poland on Monday (7 July) of border checks with neighbouring Germany and Lithuania provides to the lengthy checklist of comparable Schengen closures through the years, totalling 472 notifications since 2006.
Up till 2015, member states had solely issued 35 such notifications to the European Fee, now posing questions on the survival of a border-free zone that spans 29 nations and a few 400 million individuals.
From late 2015 onwards, the first purpose for such closures have been linked to irregular migration, adopted by covid lockdowns in the course of the pandemic, and Russia safety threats.
However the resolution by Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk to impose border checks on Monday (7 July) additionally dangers kicking off a doable tit-for-tat amid studies Germany is sending irregular migrants again into Poland.
Germany has denied turning again asylum seekers to Poland alongside their shared 467km border.
However Poland seems unconvinced.
“The border guard, with the help of the police and the military, is absolutely ready to undertake controls on the Polish-German and Polish-Lithuanian borders,” Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s inside minister was reported as saying in Polish media.
Poland’s newest 30-day notification, despatched final Friday, covers 65 management factors: 52 on the Polish-German border and 13 on the Polish-Lithuanian border.
Far-right ‘citizen patrols’
And Polish far-right teams have since shaped so-called ‘citizen patrols’ on the nation’s western border, reporters Reuters information company.
As migration continues to dominate the general public and political discourse, usually forward of elections, the difficulty of free motion below Schengen stays strained.
However Poland’s neighbour Germany has been celebrating a dramatic decline within the variety of asylum seekers, dropping by round 50 p.c in comparison with final yr.
In June 2025, fewer than 7,000 new asylum purposes have been submitted, a 59-percent lower in comparison with June 2024 — and the bottom stage in over a decade.
The drop comes on the again of political guarantees by Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz to roll again migrant arrivals.
“We have now initiated the migration turnaround: with extra restrictions, extra rejections, extra management, extra returns — according to European regulation,” mentioned Merz on X on Sunday.
Germany additionally late final yr imposed border management checks with Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.
These checks will stay in place till at the very least September, after being prolonged earlier this yr over migration fears.
For its half, the fee has solely ever as soon as issued an opinion on such momentary closures, which goals to gauge whether or not they’re each proportionate and mandatory.
“Reintroducing momentary inner border controls is feasible topic to sure situations, as set out in EU laws, and particularly within the Schengen borders code,” mentioned a spokesperson for the fee.
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