Norway will extend border controls for ferry carriers by six months to the 11th of May 2018, stated Justice Minister, Per-Willy Amundsen of Fremskrittsparti (Frp). The grounds are enforcement against terrorism.
The border controls will apply to ferries coming to Norway from Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
‘Like Germany, France, Austria and Denmark, Norway is concerned about the terrorist threat in Europe, and the continued presence of many migrants of ambiguous identity in the Schengen area. We will therefore continue to have controls on the inner Schengen border after November the 11th’, said Amundsen.
Norway introduced the extraordinary border controls in the wake of the refugee crisis in 2015, based on Article 29 of the so-called ‘Border Code for the Schengen Area’. The official justification was a lack of controls at the EU’s external border in Greece.
In May, EU immigration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, announced that he would not allow further extensions of this form of border control.
Norway therefore transposed Articles 25 and 27 of the Code of Conduct as a legal basis. These sections allow for temporary border control when serious security threats occur.
The legal remodelling is necessary in order to continue with border controls when the current control period expires on November the 11th this year.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
