EU investigates legality of DK’s  border controls

The European Commission has opened an official investigation into whether the temporary border controls that Denmark has had since 2016 are illegal, the Commission says in a reply to Dagbladet Information. “The Commission’s position is clear. The reintroduction of border controls must be exceptional, strictly limited in time and a last resort,” Anitta Hipper, the Commission’s spokesperson for home affairs, wrote to the newspaper. The process involves the Commission holding meetings with both Denmark and the countries affected by border controls and examining whether the border controls comply with the requirements of EU law, Anitta Hipper explains. Developments indicate that the Commission is losing patience with the repeated Danish extensions of border controls. /ritzau/