Poland criticises Germany’s “unacceptable” decision to reinstate border checks

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has criticised Germany’s decision to reinstate controls on all of its borders with neighbouring countries. He says that Warsaw will discuss the issue at the EU level with the other affected countries.

Berlin has announced that it is planning this week to introduce those measures for a period of six months in response to the recent fatal knife attack in the town of Solingen by a failed Syrian asylum seeker.

This will result in the “de facto suspension of Schengen on such a large scale”, said Tusk on Tuesday at a gathering in Warsaw of the heads of Polish diplomatic missions, referring to the area of free movement that is supposed to operate in Europe.

“Such actions are unacceptable from the Polish point of view, because I have no doubt that it is the internal political situation in Germany that is causing these more stringent steps, and not our policy towards illegal migration on our borders,” continued Tusk, quoted by broadcaster TVN.

“In the coming hours we will contact other countries that will be affected by Berlin’s decisions, for urgent consultations on action in the EU forum on this issue,” he added.

“Today we need full support from Germany and the entire EU when it comes to helping organise, finance and arm our eastern border, also in the context of illegal migration,” said the prime minister.

Poland has this year been facing a surge in attempted illegal crossings by thousands of migrants – mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa – along its border with Belarus, which is also the eastern frontier of both the EU and NATO.

“Poland does not need anyone to lecture us on this issue,” declared Tusk. “We have been the most consistent country when it comes to warning against ill-advised decisions concerning Ukraine, Russia and migration policy.”

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In June this year, the Polish government appealed to Germany and France for help in policing its border with Belarus. Most of the migrants who manage to cross there do not remain in Poland and instead head for western Europe, in particular to Germany.

That led Germany to last year introduce controls on its border with Poland, which have remained in place since then. In the first half of this year, the German authorities sent back over 4,600 people to Poland who attempted to illegally enter Germany.

In some cases, Poland has expressed concern that Germany has not followed proper procedures when conducting such returns.

Recent months have also seen reports of tensions between Warsaw and Berlin over the issue of German compensation to Poland for the Second World War. No senior German government figures attended the 85th anniversary in Poland at the start of this month of the German invasion that started the war.

This week, Tusk had been due to receive an award in Potsdam at a ceremony also attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. However, both men have decided not to attend.

Speaking today, Tusk declared that “we don’t need awards and words of recognition, just the participation of countries such as Germany in the policy that Poland is pursuing today, for example when it comes to illegal migration”.

Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.