European (dis)Union as Germany walls itself off

From today (September 16), the nearly 40-year-old European Schengen project — untrammelled borderless travel for hundreds of millions across nearly 30 countries — will face a real and very visible stress test.

Identity checks will be required at all nine of Germany’s land frontiers.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government says this is a temporary measure and that it’s in response to “irregular” immigration.

Many of Germany’s European Union (EU) neighbours, not least Poland and Austria, are appalled and have said as much.

Some other EU members, such as Greece, have spoken out strongly as well. Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said that his country won’t accept “having to shoulder a disproportionately large burden”.

There is something in that. While Athens may be slightly further away from Berlin than Warsaw or Vienna in geographical terms, it remains very proximate in the way the European project has always intended. These countries’ fates are linked, economically, politically and on the world stage. The actions and/or intentions of one EU member profoundly affect another. This is particularly true of Germany, which is huge and occupies a central position — politically, economically and geographically — within the European bloc.

But increasingly, these days, it seems like Europe is united more in outrage and angst than anything else.

Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com