BERLIN — French and German lawmakers have devised a joint plan to cooperate on checks along the border between their countries in a bid to defuse tensions over Berlin’s recent move to bolster controls.
The proposal, drafted by key lawmakers from the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly, a joint body of the German Bundestag and the French National Assembly, comes after Germany’s new government led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz initiated stepped-up checks on all national borders as part of a wider migration crackdown.
That move, criticized as largely symbolic by migration experts, sparked an angry reaction from leaders of countries bordering Germany, including France, with many arguing the unilateral German measures were impeding free movement within the Schengen area and creating traffic headaches.
The text of the joint proposal, seen by POLITICO, calls on both governments to “examine the possibility of joint control mechanisms — in particular in the form of mixed Franco-German patrols,” and to “minimize the impact of congestion on commuters when implementing controls and refusals.”
The proposal is expected to be approved during a meeting of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly on Monday in Paris, with voting majorities from both countries having been secured, according to Andreas Jung, a German conservative lawmaker, and Brigitte Klinkert, a French centrist, both of whom drafted the motion.
Although the proposal is not binding, “it carries a special weight, because elected representatives from Germany and France are jointly calling on their governments” to act, Jung said.
“We expect things to be taken up by the governments following our decision,” Jung added. “Of course, we also talk to government representatives in our respective countries before we take such a decision. This does not take place in a vacuum.”
French officials say more cooperation on the border is necessary to ease the flow of traffic.
“The problem is that commuters in Alsace wait more than an hour every day [to cross the border],” Klinkert said. The motion is about “communicating and working together more in future instead of the German interior minister taking unilateral action.”
After years of tension and disputes between the French and German governments during the tenure of former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, lawmakers and government officials in both countries have, since Merz’s election win in February, declared a new chapter in relations between the EU’s most populous member states.
The Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly was created in 2019 to foster closer ties between the two countries and is made up of 100 lawmakers from Berlin and Paris. On Monday the assembly will convene for the first time since 2023. Two planned sessions were canceled last year due to political turmoil, first in France and then in Germany.
“I have very high hopes about the renewal of French-German cooperation,” Klinkert said of the upcoming meeting.
Other motions expected to pass on Monday include the establishment of a joint Franco-German digital innovation center in the border region focused on AI, quantum technologies and cyber security.
Lawmakers are also expected to agree to work out new measures for cooperation on energy, including proposals for a European hydrogen strategy and a European geothermal strategy. They also intend to agree on the need to deepen the integration of French and German capital markets, according to Jung, and aim to have concrete proposals by the next meeting of EU finance ministers, known as ECOFIN, scheduled for July.
French and German lawmakers push for joint border controls
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