Greece warns Germany not to ‘scrap' the Schengen area

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned German chancellor Olaf Scholz that an increase in migration into Europe cannot be addressed by unilaterally scrapping” the freemovement Schengen zone.

- ANGELIKI KOUTANTOU, ALEXANDER RATZ

Earlier this week, Germany announced plans to impose tighter checks at all of its land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration. The checks within what is normally a wide area of free movement will start on Monday and initially last for six months.

“The response cannot be unilaterally scrapping Schengen and drop the ball to countries which sit at Europe’s external borders,” Mr Mitsotakis said in an interview with a Greek radio station. He said that a solution would involve “a fair compromise” among all European countries, which would accept the need to protect Europe’s external borders.

The proposals from the German government include detaining asylum seekers while authorities determine whether Germany is responsible for processing their case with the help of Europe’s shared fingerprint database, Eurodac, among other tools, interior minister Nancy Faeser told a news conference.

“We want people whose asylum procedure is the responsibility of another EU country to be sent back there,” Ms Faeser said.

The measures reflect Germany’s hardening stance on immigration in the wake of high numbers of asylum seekers arriving from both the Middle East and Ukraine, which could strain relations with other European states.

“We will approach our European partners at a high political level to ensure that they give their approval for readmission to the respective countries more quickly so that the European rules are complied with,” Ms Faeser said.