WARSAW, Poland — Poland will temporarily reinstate border controls with neighboring Germany and Lithuania, in response to border restriction taken by Germany to discourage asylum-seekers, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday.
The decision comes after new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made tougher migration policy a pillar of his election campaign in February. After he took office in May, Germany stationed more police at the border and said some asylum-seekers trying to enter Europe's biggest economy would be turned away.
Even before that, Merz's predecessor in February had extended by six months the border checks Germany had imposed on all its frontiers last fall as it attempted to cut the number of migrants arriving in the country.
Tusk said that ''the German side refuses to allow migrants to enter its territory. ... The change in practice introduced tensions and a sense of asymmetry,'' according to Polish state broadcaster TVP.
He said he had discussed the issue with Merz, "informing him that the patient position of Poland is slowly being exhausted.''
The European Union has a visa-free travel area known as Schengen that allows citizens of most member states to travel easily across borders for work and pleasure. Switzerland also belongs to Schengen although it is not an EU member.
According to the EU, member states are allowed to temporarily reintroduce border controls in cases of a serious threat, like internal security. It says border controls should be applied as a last resort in exceptional situations, and must be limited in time.
In the past, Tusk has repeatedly denounced Germany's temporary border measures as ''unacceptable.''
