German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) has announced that temporary internal border controls will be extended for another six months beyond March 15, 2026. “We are extending the border controls at the borders with our neighboring countries,” Dobrindt told the newspaper Bild (Monday edition). “The border controls are an element of our reorganization of migration policy in Germany,” the federal interior minister added.
According to Bild, citing government sources, the required notification is currently being submitted to the European Commission in Brussels. Since systematic checks are not generally planned within the Schengen Area, this formal step with the EU authority is mandatory.
On May 7 last year, Dobrindt ordered intensified controls and rejections at all nine of Germany’s internal borders with neighboring states. So-called vulnerable groups, such as children and pregnant women, are exempt from these measures.
The internal border controls have caused some irritation among the affected neighboring countries. In December, following the EU member states’ agreement on tightening the bloc’s common asylum policy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said he expected an end to the internal border controls. He himself had “always perceived the border controls as something of limited duration and effect,” Merz said at the time.
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