Can the EU's Schengen agreement survive new border checks? – DW – 06/13/2025
06/13/2025
June 13, 2025
The Schengen agreement is a cornerstone of European Union policy, allowing the free movement of citizens and goods. But with many member states now reimposing temporary border checks as part of immigration controls, can Schengen survive?
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06/14/2025 June 14, 2025 Germany's Merz praises border-free Europe The German Police Union says the border checks and asylum rejections are not sustainable Image: Angelika Warmuth/REUTERS German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Saturday praised the Schengen Agreement, which led to internal borders among most European Union member states being removed to allow free movement within the bloc. Saturday marks 40 years since the agreement was signed. "The Schengen Agreement is unique, the foundation of our free Europe. It should stay that way: We want a strong European internal market without restrictions," Merz said on X. "This requires secure external borders, implementation of the new migration rules, and effective cooperation," he added. The chancellor, who took office last month, has sought to clamp down on irregular migration to Germany amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment in his country and a far-right movement that has been gaining strength in recent years. Germany has reinstated police controls on roads and railways along many of its borders. At a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement in Schengen, Luxembourg, the premier of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Alexander Schweitzer, said the federal government's recently imposed border checks must not become permanent. "They are not agreed as a permanent measure, they are not designed to be permanent," Alexander Schweitzer said of the border checks. The Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 by Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Today, some 29 countries with around 420 million inhabitants belong to the border and customs-free zone. "Schengen is a historic achievement of today's Europe," Schweitzer said. "We must not throw Europe and what we have achieved in Europe out like a baby with the bath water," he added, while emphasizing that he was not opposed to "local, temporary, well-justified border controls."
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a day ago
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Can the EU's Schengen agreement survive new border checks? – DW – 06/13/2025
06/13/2025 June 13, 2025 The Schengen agreement is a cornerstone of European Union policy, allowing the free movement of citizens and goods. But with many member states now reimposing temporary border checks as part of immigration controls, can Schengen survive?
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'We're done with Teams': German state hits uninstall on Microsoft
In less than three months' time, almost no civil servant, police officer or judge in Schleswig-Holstein will be using any of Microsoft's ubiquitous programs at work. Instead, the northern state will turn to open-source software to "take back control" over data storage and ensure "digital sovereignty", its digitalisation minister, Dirk Schroedter, told AFP. "We're done with Teams!" he said, referring to Microsoft's messaging and collaboration tool and speaking on a video call -- via an open-source German program, of course. The radical switch-over affects half of Schleswig-Holstein's 60,000 public servants, with 30,000 or so teachers due to follow suit in coming years. The state's shift towards open-source software began last year. The current first phase involves ending the use of Word and Excel software, which are being replaced by LibreOffice, while Open-Xchange is taking the place of Outlook for emails and calendars. Over the next few years, there will also be a switch to the Linux operating system in order to complete the move away from Windows. 'Digital dependencies' The principle of open-source software is to allow users to read the source code and modify it according to their own needs. The issue of the power wielded by American tech titans has been thrown into sharper relief by Donald Trump's return to the White House and the subsequent rise in US-EU tensions. In the case of Microsoft, there have long been worries about the dominant position it enjoys thanks to it owning both the Windows operating system and a suite of programs found in offices the world over. Advertisement In 2023, the European Union launched an antitrust investigation against Microsoft over the way it tied Teams to its other programs for businesses. "The geopolitical developments of the past few months have strengthened interest in the path that we've taken," said Schroedter, adding that he had received requests for advice from across the world. "The war in Ukraine revealed our energy dependencies, and now we see there are also digital dependencies," he said. Last year Germany saw severe disruptions when a glitch in some companies' Microsoft systems halted operations at airports, banks and more . The government in Schleswig-Holstein is also planning to shift the storage of its data to a cloud system not under the control of Microsoft, said Schroedter. He explained that the state wants to rely on publicly owned German digital infrastructure rather than that of an American company. Taken 'by the throat' Experts point to economic incentives for the sort of shift Schleswig-Holstein is making, as investing in open-source alternatives and training staff to use them often costs less than the licences for Microsoft's programs. This is particularly the case when businesses and public bodies find themselves taken "by the throat" when hit by unexpected extra costs for mandatory updates, said Benjamin Jean from consulting firm Inno3. Schleswig-Holstein hopes that its move away from Microsoft will eventually save it tens of millions of euros. But organisations considering this sort of change have to reckon with resistance from staff who fear upheaval. Advertisement "If people aren't guided through it, there's an outcry and everyone just wants to go back to how it was before," warned Francois Pellegrini, an IT professor at Bordeaux University. READ ALSO: 'Machines don't work!' - The problem of getting digital ID photos in Germany Pioneer administrations The potential pitfalls can be seen in the experience of Munich, whose city administration was a pioneer in using open-source programs in the 1990s. In 2017, the city announced an about-turn, citing a lack of political support and the difficulty of interacting with other systems. But other public bodies are staying the course: France's gendarmerie, around 100,000 strong, has been using the Linux operating system since the 2000s and India's defence ministry was in 2023 reported to have launched a homegrown system called "Maya OS". Across the border from Schleswig-Holstein, in Denmark, reports say that the local governments of Copenhagen and Aarhus are also looking into ditching Microsoft. Another factor that could push the trend is the EU "Interoperable Europe Act", which came into effect last year and encourages the use of open-source software. According to Jean, "Within the space of two or three years" there could be a number of pioneer administrations who will be able to give feedback on their experiences and inspire others to make the switch. By Léa PERNELLE
