EU extends internal border controls for six months

The Council of the European Union, an essential decision-maker of the bloc, agreed to extend border controls within the Schengen area for six months with nearly 55,000 refugees stuck in Greece.

Starting from Thursday, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway will be allowed to continue their border controls for six months, the Council said in a statement.

Specifically, the frontiers such as the Austrian-Hungarian land border, German-Austrian land border, Danish ports with ferry connections to Germany, among others, will continue to be controlled.

However, the five countries will be required to ensure that controls are only implemented where "necessary and proportionate," and are taken with an objective to lift all internal border controls and return to a normally functioning Schengen area by the end of 2016.

"Border controls should be targeted and limited in scope, frequency, location and time, to what is strictly necessary to respond to the serious threat and to safeguard public policy and internal security resulting from the secondary movements of irregular migrants," the statement said.

As the refugee crisis persists, border controls have become the norm in parts of Europe. Greece, strongly opposed to the decision, said extending internal border controls has put the overall functioning of the Schengen area at risk.

More than two months after the so-called western Balkans migration route closed, the number of refugees stuck in Greece continues to rise to 55,000 people, according to government figures.

First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans insisted that the decision was in line with the roadmap to return to a normal functioning of the passport-free zone by November.

"We need to get there in an orderly way," he said, "As long as serious deficiencies in border management persist, some internal border control measures need to be maintained." Enditem