Polish mayor to complain to EU over German border checks

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The mayor of a Polish town on the German border has announced that he will file a complaint to the European Parliament regarding Germany’s ongoing border checks, which he says effectively amount to the suspension of the Schengen Agreement and are causing significant traffic disruption.

In normal times, people can cross the Polish-German border without any checks as both countries are part of the Schengen Area that covers most of Europe.

However, in autumn 2023, Germany introduced controls on its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic, citing a surge of irregular migrants arriving through those countries.

These measures, though theoretically only temporary, have been repeatedly renewed and remain in place. Last year, they were expanded to cover all of Germany’s borders.

In Zgorzelec, which sits along the Lusatian Neisse River that marks the border between Poland and Germany, traffic congestion resulting from German border checks has become a persistent problem.

When German police conduct vehicle inspections on a nearby motorway border crossing, traffic slows and navigation systems redirect drivers through the town, causing gridlock.

Zgorzelec’s mayor, Rafał Gronicz, argues that Germany’s border controls amount to an informal suspension of the Schengen Agreement. His office told news website Wirtualna Polska that Gronicz will send a petition to the European Parliament to highlight the issue.

Border controls within the Schengen Area can only be introduced temporarily in response to a serious threat to internal security. Such measures must be a last resort, applied only in exceptional circumstances, and must adhere to the principle of proportionality, notes the European Commission.

“We do not question Germany’s right to ensure security, but these controls regularly bring our town to a standstill,” Renata Burdosz, spokeswoman for Zgorzelec city hall, told the website. They hope the petition will draw the attention of European lawmakers and pressure German authorities to reconsider their approach.

Wirtualna Polska notes that the Polish-Czech dispute over the Turów mine – which ended up going to the European Court of Justice and resulted in tens of millions of euros in fines for Poland – also began when Czech local authorities submitted a petition to the EU.

Gronicz says he has been raising concerns about the issue since November 2023, including reaching out to the head of the neighbouring German state of Saxony and the head of the German federal policy in the nearby German town of Ludwigsdorf. While some adjustments were made, the overall problem persists.

Earlier this year, a Polish resident of Görlitz, the German town on the other side of the river from Zgorzelec, also announced that he had launched legal action against the German authorities over the border controls, which he said violate free-movement rules.

Poland’s government has also expressed frustration at Germany’s actions, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk calling the border controls “unacceptable” last year. The foreign ministry, meanwhile, told Wirtualna Polska that the issue is a key point in Polish-German discussions.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Germany, another of its neighbours, Luxembourg, announced earlier this year that if Germany continues to implement its “absurd” border controls it will raise the issue with the European Commission.

Germany, however, has not indicated plans to lift the controls. Moreover, the country’s likely incoming chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has promised to “massively extend” border controls.

Merz has also pledged to be even tougher on turning away asylum seekers at the border. At the weekend, a group of Polish protesters blocked a bridge on the border during a demonstration against Germany returning migrants to Poland.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Adam Kliczek / Wikimedia.org (under CC BY-SA 3.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.