Overview

• Checks will take effect on July 7 and operate under temporary provisions of the Schengen Border Code.
• Warsaw’s move counters Germany’s May decision that turned away about 1,300 people at its Polish frontier, including 130 asylum seekers.
• Self-declared citizen patrols numbering in the hundreds have appeared on Poland’s border with Germany, prompting Tusk’s stern warning.
• EU law obliges member states to allow asylum applications to be lodged and assessed before any return, challenging both countries’ unilateral push-backs.
• The escalating border dispute has intensified strains on Tusk’s centrist coalition after the PiS-backed election of Karol Nawrocki as president.