The controls at the external borders are supposed to prevent the “irregular migration”. It is controversial whether you can do that. In any case, they ensure traffic jams – and increased costs.
If you drive to Germany from Poland on the A12, the motorway will become a lane just behind the border. The German police control here. The right lane is cordoned off, there are federal police officers and watch every vehicle.
Every now and then they hold out the trowel and take a closer look in the car. Then there is a short stop, also for the following cars. Sometimes someone is waving out. That costs travel time – for everyone who is traveling there. A problem not only for commuters as well as car travelers, but also for everyone who wants to bring goods from or to Poland.
Time is money
Koos the Rooijen comes from the Netherlands and works in Frankfurt (Oder) for the Polish forwarding company Log Way Solution. He sharply criticizes the controls: “This is only stress for the drivers,” he says. And for the regular waiting time at the border crossings: “There are actually hidden costs. They are not balanced by anyone.”
Since Poland has also introduced border controls in return to German, the Rooijen driver has been in the Rooijen driver in both directions. He calculates how the hours add up: “Monday morning: 40 to 60 minutes delay in the best case.” On Fridays, when there is a lot of traffic again, the same game. And it takes a particularly long time after public holidays: “After Easter, up to six or seven hours have been normal.”
The industry raises the alarm. Eberhard Tief from the Feutzenverkehr specialist association indicates the multiplication table of the business administration: “Time is money. If vehicles are stuck in traffic, they are unproductive and cannot participate in the added value.” At the border crossing near Frankfurt (Oder) alone, the damage caused by the industry is going into the millions or beyond.
Fire letter to Dobrindt
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) East Brandenburg and the Association of the Traffic industry recently turned to Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU). Almost four million trucks would roll across the border at Frankfurt (or) a year alone – or are currently standing in front of it. The letter states that the controls lead to “disorders of supply chains” and disabilities of work commuters. The increasing costs weakened the competitiveness “sustainable”.
There are also suggestions for the practice: for example, a trace for cars and small vans, another for buses and trucks. That would suddenly be two traces. The site of a former “pass control system” from GDR times could be used again – to create more space for the controls.
The suggestions are practical and possibly implemented promptly. However, they also show again how uncoordinated and partly haphazard the controls on the German side were introduced at all. For Monique Zweig from the IHK Ostbrandenburg, which has signed the fire letter together with deeply, Poland shows how to do it better: “They have set up two signs of control, we also wish for something like that on the German side.”
Experts doubt effectiveness
It is not without irony that Poland can do it better. The country would rather see free traffic again today than tomorrow. Warsaw has only introduced its own controls as a reaction – to the German decision to check its limits again.
In the Brandenburg state capital Potsdam, Poland ambassador Jan Tombiński stopped visiting his inaugural visit last week. He met Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke there. The SPD politician once again emphasizes what everyone knows here: that Poland is the most important export country for Brandenburg. Nevertheless, Woidke defends border controls. These were “a major contribution to suppressing irregular migration”.
An assessment that many experts and politicians doubt. Rather, controls at the external borders as well as all possible push and pull factors are crucial for how the numbers developed. The controls at the German external borders, on the other hand, would have – if at all – a subordinate effect.
Poland calls for the end of the controls
Ambassador Tombiński once again demands an end to the border controls in a diplomatic tone. Poland “invested massively in protecting the outer border of the European Union”. Among other things, the country built a 186 -kilometer border fence to Belarus, electronically monitored. Tombiński warns that this is “only justified if the internal borders of the European Union ensure free movement in traffic.”
The freight forwarder the rooijen wants that too. For him, the controls remain a cost factor. “It’s all a political decision of people who are not represented here.” First of all, however, an end to the controls is not in sight.
For the Rooijen, this means that every week starts with a loss. “Let’s say you have 50 trucks,” he calculates. In the best case, these would be in a traffic jam every Monday. “Then you have 50 hours of loss of working time every week on Monday.”
With material by Ronja Bachofer and Franz Talke, RBB
