Overview
- The European Commission formally recommended on Friday that Germany begin a stepwise end to internal Schengen border controls and said Berlin had not supplied sufficient legal evidence to justify the measures.
- Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has rejected the recommendation and says the checks remain necessary because they have been effective and help police operations at the borders.
- A new Common European Asylum System (GEAS) will take effect in mid‑June and Brussels has activated external tools — a digital Entry/Exit System, a new return regulation and plans for return centres — which EU officials say create the conditional basis for any rollback.
- German administrative courts have already found specific rejections and aspects of the controls unlawful in cases heard by the Bavarian Higher Administrative Court, the Koblenz court and the Berlin court.
- Brussels and Berlin appear to have a political understanding that Germany would scale back controls if GEAS delivers workable returns and sharply lower irregular entries, but human-rights groups warn that return centres and faster rejections risk harming asylum seekers and eroding legal safeguards.