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Border controls are 'last resort,' Brussels says after Solingen attack
The spectre of additional border controls looms over the Schengen Area after a deadly attack in Solingen, Germany.
The European Commission is treading a fine line following the mass stabbing that left three people dead in Solingen, Germany, balancing, on the one hand, the prerogative of national security, which member states zealously guard, and, on the other, the integrity of the Schengen Area, which the executive is compelled to preserve.
The passport-free zone of 450 million citizens, widely considered one of the most tangible achievements of European integration, has been under constant pressure since the 2015 migration crisis, when countries introduced temporary border checks that were, in certain cases, illegally prolonged.
Eight Schengen countries, including Germany, currently conduct checks.
Any border control should be “proportionate” and remain “exceptional, strictly limited in time and last resort,” a Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday, noting the measure should always be justified by a “serious threat to public policy or internal security.”
The knife attack in Solingen, claimed by the so-called Islamic State, was carried out by a Syrian national whose asylum application had been previously rejected and had been ordered to return to Bulgaria, the first EU country of entry.
The failure to carry out the deportation has triggered a blame game between German authorities and reignited the politically explosive debate on migration, which Brussels had hoped to have contained after completing an all-encompassing reform in May.
“We must do everything we can to ensure that such things will never happen again in our country,” Chancellor German Scholz said, promising to speed up the number of deportations. The EU has long struggled to address this thorny issue due to, among other factors, a lack of cooperation from countries of origin.
“We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay here in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Scholz added.
Politicians on the right quickly seized the moment to excoriate Scholz and his deeply unpopular three-party coalition, demanding forceful action to curb irregular migration.
Friedrich Merz, leader of the centre-right Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), proposed a moratorium on the admission of Syrian and Afghan refugees, the two largest groups of nationalities who seek shelter in Germany, and the establishment of permanent checks on German borders. “Enough is enough!” Merz wrote.
Alice Weidel, co-chair of the far-right AfD party, has voiced similar ideas, saying the moratorium should last “at least” five years. “In addition, the borders must be closed and the groups of people with the highest crime rate – especially Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis who are staying in Germany illegally – must be deported,” Weidel told the ZDF channel.
Focus on the Pact
Asked about these ideas, which, if implemented, would collide with EU norms, the European Commission refused to comment and insisted its main focus was to implement the reform of migration and asylum policy, otherwise known as the New Pact.
The five laws under the Pact will take two years to enter into force.
The overhaul foresees that, when an asylum claim is rejected, the applicant will receive at the same time a return decision, closing the gap between the two procedures. Frontex, the bloc’s border guard agency, will support member states to carry out deportations successfully. The last word, however, will still lie with the country of origin or transit that is asked to take back the migrant – and can refuse to do so.
The EU’s return rate hovers around 30%.
ADVERTISEMENTCrucially, governments are, under international law, forbidden from sending back asylum seekers to countries where their lives and human rights would be at risk. A debate among member states on whether it would be appropriate to repatriate migrants to some parts of Syria has gained traction in recent months but without any resolution.
“This is an ongoing work. So far, the conditions (in Syria) have not been met yet,” a Commission spokesperson said.
The New Pact envisions the possibility of drafting an EU-wide list of “safe countries of origin” to ensure deportation orders are recognised uniformly across the bloc. As of today, each member state has its own list of “safe countries,” a fragmented landscape that has caused occasional disagreements between governments.
“Having such a list could possibly facilitate returning persons to countries of origin that are then defined as safe,” Alberto-Horst Neidhardt, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre (EPC), told Euronews.
ADVERTISEMENTBut the fact that the catalogue was not put forward at the same time as the legislation, and therefore not included in the negotiations, hints at an uphill battle to get all 27 member states on the same page.
“It’s very unlikely that there will be a very strong consensus any time soon on what countries could be on that list,” Neidhardt said. “Particularly, if you look at countries that are at the center of the media attention at the moment, such as Syria or Afghanistan. There are very, very different positions among member states on this issue.”
The concept of “safe countries” has been challenged by NGOs who argue minority groups can still face persecution in war-free nations.
Still, the matter is expected to remain high on the agenda. In her guidelines for a second mandate, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has promised to table a “new common approach” on returns to ensure decisions “are mutually recognised across Europe.”
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Lebanon, rocket attack on Unifil base of the Italian contingent: no injuries
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As President Donald Trump continues to express anger at NATO European allies for their lack of help in the war with Iran, he’s making clear their behavior comes at a cost.
In the weeks during the war and since the ceasefire, the president has hit back not just with words but with definitive actions against several of those countries.
Germany
On Saturday, Trump said that he would withdraw more than the initial 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany as stated by the Pentagon, after Berlin’s leader denigrated the American effort to stop Iran’s regime from building a nuclear weapon.
TRUMP WEIGHS PULLING US TROOPS FROM GERMANY AMID CLASH WITH CHANCELLOR OVER IRAN WAR
President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 2026, to discuss issues including recent U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
A day earlier he said about Germany that “We’re gonna cut way down. We’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.” The Trump administration previously announced a contraction of 5,000 troops in Germany after the country’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Iran’s regime “humiliated” Trump.
In an apparent state of panic, Merz walked back his attack on Trump and his Iran strategy on Sunday. The chancellor wrote on X: “The United States is and will remain Germany‘s most important partner in the North Atlantic Alliance. We share a common goal: Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.”
Trump ratcheted up his troop reduction number against Germany amid his comments about downsizing U.S. boots on the ground in Spain and Italy because they failed to aid America in the war against Iran. The president’s anger at Western European countries has been simmering for weeks and could lead to profound changes in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
TRUMP CRITICIZES SPAIN AMID IRAN, NATO RIFT AS PM SANCHEZ FACES QUESTIONS OVER POLITICAL MOTIVES
Nile Gardiner, the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital, “The lack of support for the United States has been nothing less than treacherous. I think the president has the right to be outraged by the lack of support from key European allies.”
An Iranian flag is planted in the rubble of a police station, damaged in airstrikes on March 3, 2026, in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
He said, “There is a very deep-seated cultural appeasement in Europe toward the Iranian regime that goes back many decades, and a flat-out refusal to accept the reality of the immense dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran. European leaders are sleepwalking toward destruction with this perilous path they have taken.
TRUMP IS RIGHT ABOUT NATO’S WEAKNESS — THE REAL QUESTION IS HOW DOES AMERICA FIX IT
“The lack of support for the United States is how far Europe has gone toward losing its moral compass. Iran is a genocidal regime that threatens to wipe Israel off the map.” He noted that the Islamic Republic has killed huge numbers of its population.
Gardiner, a former advisor to Lady Margaret Thatcher said, “If you listen to European leaders, it’s as if the U.S. is the villain here.”
Merz, speaking last week in Marsberg, criticized the U.S. approach to Iran, saying Washington was being “humiliated by the Iranian leadership” and expressing hope the conflict would end “as quickly as possible.”
Gardiner said of Merz’s remarks, “Comments like these actually help the propaganda of the Iranian dictatorship. It is astonishing that a German chancellor would make these kinds of remarks at a time of war… and the German chancellor is giving comfort to the Iranian regime. It is disgusting.”
Numerous Fox News Digital press queries sent to Merz’s spokesman Stefan Kornelius were not returned.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the U.S. conflict with Iran “reckless” and “unjust.” (Yves Herman/Reuters)
Spain and Italy
Before his announcement on the troop withdrawal from Germany, and in response to a question about reducing U.S. troops in Spain and Italy, Trump responded, “I mean, they haven’t been exactly on board. Yeah, probably. Yeah, I probably will… Italy has not been of any help to us. And Spain has been horrible. Absolutely horrible.”
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has taken a belligerent stand toward the U.S. and Israeli military campaign against the Iranian regime, forbidding the U.S. from using its military bases in Spain to refuel aircraft or prepare for military action. He has decried the campaign as illegal while staying quiet on the regime’s murder of thousands of protesters and its increased drive to produce ballistic missiles and acquire nuclear weapons-grade enriched uranium.
Gardiner said, “The Spanish have been the worst by a long way. At least the Germans and Italy have allowed the use of its own bases. The Spanish have refused to cooperate in any way with the war.”
Trump told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera last month about the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, “I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.”
The Europe expert, Gardiner, sees a wide gulf between how mainly Western European countries and the United States view the preservation of Western civilization, freedom, democracy and liberty.
French President Emmanuel Macron listens to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a working session with world leaders at the G7 summit in Borgo Egnazia, Italy, on June 13, 2024. (Andrew Medichini/AP)
“Europe has lost both its ability and its will to fight. The United States is clearly willing to fight to defend Western civilization and the free world. Much of Europe has given up on this, especially Western Europe. It is an appeasement mindset cojoined with weakness and pacifism and also a growing acceptance by European leaders of mass migration and Islamification.”
He added, “Europe has fundamentally changed over the last 20 years beyond recognition, and yet Europe’s ruling elites accept it seemingly as a fact, with some notable exceptions.”
France and the U.K.
Trump took the United Kingdom and France in March to task for their postion on the war against Iran.
“The Country of France wouldn’t let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the ‘Butcher of Iran,’ who has been successfully eliminated! The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!!,” he wrote.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on Feb. 17, 2025, before an informal summit of European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine and European security. (Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump also wrote, “All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you.”
“Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.”
“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”
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Gardiner said the crisis over the Iran war shows that Europe has surrendered. The big Western Europeans have embraced “defeatism,” and “they do not care. It is as simple as that. And future generations will have to pay the price for the course Europe is taking now,” he said.
Fox News’ Brittany Miller and Solly Boussidan contributed to this report.
Published on
Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov will hold talks with US officials in Florida on Thursday on how to end the full-scale Russian invasion, Kyiv said on Thursday, amid stalled negotiations during the Iran war.
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“The Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine will hold a series of meetings today with envoys of the President of the United States,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a post on X.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv had “defined the key tasks,” which includes discussing a potential prisoner exchange with Russia and security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine.
“Rustem and I discussed work with our European partners on Drone Deals. We are preparing the agreements reached at the highest level, as well as new steps in joint technological work,” Zelenskyy wrote.
US-mediated talks on ending Europe’s worst conflict since World War II have shown little progress since February, when Washington shifted focus to its war with Iran.
Umerov last met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Florida between 21-22 March.
Since returning to office, Trump has pushed Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate but months of talks have failed to bring the warring parties closer to an agreement to stop the fighting, triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion four years ago.
The already stalled talks were put on the back burner from late February, when the US-Israeli air campaign against Iran began.
Even before the Middle East war, Russia and Ukraine remained at odds over the key issue of territory.
Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines.
But Russia has rejected this, saying it wants the whole of the Donetsk region despite it being partly controlled by Ukraine, a demand Kyiv says is unacceptable.
Kremlin ceasefire
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Thursday that it would begin a two-day ceasefire with Ukraine starting at midnight that is meant to cover its patriotic 9 May parade, after ignoring a Ukrainian ceasefire earlier this week.
Moscow warned foreign diplomats in Kyiv that it will strike the Ukrainian capital if Ukraine targets its World War II victory parade.
“Yes, we are talking about the 8th and 9th of May,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked if the ceasefire would come into effect from midnight.
Asked about the Ukrainian ceasefire on 6 May, a counter-offer by Kyiv which dismissed Moscow’s demand to stop fighting as “utter cynicism,” Peskov said, “There was no Russian reaction to this.”
The Kremlin ordered a scaled-back version this year, with no military hardware to be on display, over the fear it could be targeted by Ukraine.
Additional sources • AFP
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