Denmark's defiance over frontier controls has left European Union bordering on crisis

Denmark's defiance over frontier controls has left European Union bordering on crisis

Will Denmark reinstating border controls help to stop crime, or will it be a first stop on the road to dismantling the EU?

Ex-border guard and curator of the 'Graenslands' museum in the town of Tonder, Carl Jorgensen, in the old border post museum in Denmark. Photo: JANE MINGAY

By Harriet Alexander, Tonder, southern Denmark 8:00AM BST 15 May 2011

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For 50 years as he kept watch over Denmark's border with Germany, Carl Jorgensen knew all about frontier problems. The former border guard tracked down drug dealers with his sniffer dog, cycled every inch of the boundary, and stopped hundreds of trouble-makers from entering his country with dubious intentions.

But the latest struggle for control over Denmark's frontier is not being waged on these flat farmlands of northern Europe, which Mr Jorgensen and his fellow border guards once policed.

Instead, it is being fought in the offices and chambers of Brussels, as Denmark takes on the European Union in a bitter row over the right to police its borders.

Last week Denmark announced that it was resuming checks along its frontiers with Germany and Sweden - having suspended them in 2001 when it joined the Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel throughout 22 of the EU's 27 member states, plus four others.

The Danish government says the resumption of border checks is needed to help prevent cross-border crime, illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Soren Pind, Denmark's integration minister, said that the EU needed a frank discussion about the "dark side" of open frontiers.

Copenhagen warned that, within the next three weeks, it will rebuild border stations; employ more customs officials; begin extensive video surveillance of cars crossing Danish borders; and make rapid police assistance available if the customs officers need them.

"We are trying our best to take measures that will secure the best aspects of freedom of movement, and at the same time, not let criminal activity pass through freely," said Mr Pind.

It is a move welcomed by Mr Jorgensen, 77. Sitting inside the only remaining pre-Schengen Danish border post, preserved as a museum in the town of Tonder, Mr Jorgensen reminisced about how he would keep an eagle eye on the comings and goings across the frontier – a boundary which dates back 1,500 years.

Some 20 miles to the east, where the A7 dual carriageway runs from Hamburg up into central Denmark, cars, coaches and huge container lorries thunder in both directions, a large sign and a pair of flags the only indication that they are crossing the border. "It's right that they are bringing back the controls," he said. "Since 2001 things have got much more dangerous, and there is a big problem with criminals coming across. Everyone around here wants this."

But the decision has sparked an angry reaction within the EU. At stake, opponents claim, is the key principle of a united, integrated Europe. A furious European Commission denounced the Danish plan as illegal, triggering the latest row to convulse the EU which now appears to be bordering on perpetual crisis.

The row over frontiers comes as the economic meltdown is shaking the world's faith in European monetary union, which was as much a part of EU's founding vision as the free movement of goods and people.

Last week Greece was convulsed by angry demonstrations against spending cuts and the further round of loans from other EU governments needed to keep its economy afloat. One in four Greeks, according to the latest poll, would now rather their country left the euro.

The crisis is straining EU cooperation as Germans bridle at bailing out their more profligate southern European neighbours, and voters in countries like Britain and Denmark, both outside the eurozone, baulk at paying to save the single currency.

On Monday George Osborne will tell European Union finance ministers that Britain will not be dragged into joining any further bail-out of Greece. "We don't want to be a part of it, and we see no reason why we should," a source close to the Chancellor said last night. "That's the message George will take with him to Brussels."

Last week the French government accepted that the UK would not be brought into any EU support for Greece, according to the Treasury.

The row over the EU's internal borders reflects fears over immigrants fleeing the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. Under the current Schengen regime, anyone of more than 400 million people can travel from Portugal's Atlantic coast to Poland's frontier with Russia, without showing their passport.

Both France and Italy want this reviewed, and this will be discussed at a summit of EU prime ministers and presidents next month. Italy is particularly under pressure from North African immigration, with refugees arriving by the hundred on the island of Lampedusa.

Lucio Malan, a senator from Italy's governing People's Freedom Party, said: "As long as we don't have a realistic European policy about illegal immigration, of course the single member states will try to make a little fortress.

"Immigrants are coming to Italy in big numbers and we have been condemned for rejecting many immigrants or making it a crime to repeatedly enter Italy without the proper authorisation. We are trying to work a solution by ourselves because there is no burden sharing."

Denmark's unilateral move to reintroduce controls has increased the risk that the whole Schengen Agreement could collapse.

"We must not destroy Schengen," said Jerzy Buzek, president of the European parliament, after an emergency meeting on Thursday, while EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding said that she was "extremely concerned" by the Danish government's action.

Elsewhere in the region, Right-wing Eurosceptic parties are capitalising on fears of immigration and the meltdown of the euro. In France, Marine Le Pen's Front National is threatening President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's elections, while in Finland last month's general election created a new headache for the EU, with the Right-wing True Finns gaining a foothold in government and challenging the Portuguese bail-out.

Indeed, in Denmark, the decision to reinstate border controls is largely due to the influence of the Danish People's Party – an anti immigration and Euro-sceptic grouping.

In order to pass its 2020 economic plan, the government needed the party's support, and the price the party extracted was a promise to impose tougher border controls.

Soren Espersen, foreign affairs spokesman for Danish People's Party, told The Sunday Telegraph that it was high time that Denmark faced up to the problem. "We have real problems with the smuggling of drugs, weapons and illegal immigrants. Gangs of Eastern Europeans come here to break into people's homes," he said.

"There is a profound scepticism in Denmark about the lack of border controls, and the march of federalism. I am not surprised that this has ruffled feathers in Europe. Any step against their rulings sparks a kerfuffle – but it's the right thing for our country."

His view is supported by many. A poll last week by a Danish newspaper suggested 70 per cent of Danes wanted tougher border controls, and the government insists that as a measure against crime – and not a compulsory passport check – it is still within the Schengen remit.

Statistics do show a rise in crime in Denmark, with thefts of lorries and articulated trailers every second day in 2011, according to the Insurance Association. Chief Inspector Christian Ostergaard of Southern Jutland Police admitted: "There is no doubt that many Eastern Europeans are responsible."

Theft is also a problem, but with the increased focus on break-ins, police say they no longer catch as many human smugglers and illegal immigrants at the borders. In the first three mnths of this year, 917 asylum seekers were apprehended entering Denmark – most from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Russia.

"We don't catch as many illegal immigrants and human smugglers," said Inspector Jens-Ole Wilhelmsen of the Foreigners Department in Padborg, on the German border. "To get them, we have to be at the borders, and we are not there because of other tasks."

In the pretty border town of Tonder, where Mr Jorgensen proudly maintains his frontier museum, the controls are also met with approval.

"I go to Germany once a week, but I think it's a good idea," said Dide Johannsen, 16, riding her bicycle to work in a shoe shop. "I think it will help stop crime and cut down problems with illegal immigrants."

Stig Jacobsen, 36, who runs an international furniture business, said that he approved – even if the measures meant his delivery lorries would occasionally be delayed.

"It's easy for people in Copenhagen to say that we should keep everything open. But living here, you are aware of suspicious people hanging about, and theft. I am very pro-EU, but this is a necessary measure."

Others are not so sure. The leading Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten called the decision "un-Danish", while many fear that the controls will lead to excessive border queues and damage Denmark's pro-European reputation.

"I prefer open borders," said Maria Dalsgaard, a consultant, from Copenhagen. "Of course there is a problem with human smuggling and crime, but I don't think things will change with a permanent border presence. These criminals will always be able to find a way in, and anyway I prefer things to be open."

Additional reporting: Julian Isherwood in Copenhagen
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