05European Union · Migration and public order
Internal border controls are becoming Europe’s durable exception
Facts
France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Austria and Nordic states have notified renewed Schengen controls, citing migration, smuggling, terrorism, organised crime and hybrid threats.
InterpretationNational governments are using border checks because external-border and return systems still lack trusted enforcement. The policy can restore visible control, but repeated extensions impose trade and travel costs and reveal an institutional failure: temporary powers are substituting for a durable common system.