The new border controls are the ambition of the Danish People’s Party (DF). In exchange for the party's support for its 2020 budget reform plan, the Liberal-Conservative government agreed to put permanent customs agents, who will do spot checks for smuggled goods, on border crossings to Germany and Sweden. Critics from the European Commission and neighbouring countries have complained that the plan undermines the EU's open borders policies and the Schengen agreement.
On May 31, Christensen told the German newspaper Der Nordschleswiger that Germany had no right to criticise Denmark for tightening its borders, because – he claimed – eight other EU countries, including Germany itself, already had similar policies in place.
On Tuesday, however, the tax minister downsized his tally of EU countries with permanent border agents to seven. And later, before parliament, he claimed that six other EU countries had permanent border controls like those Denmark plans to implement. The six countries according to the tax minister were Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, Finland, Poland and Portugal.
However, when asked to confirm the Danish minister’s claim, officials from all six countries denied that such border controls exist in their countries, reported Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
The Social Liberals are firmly against the government’s plan to implement stricter border controls in any form. Also opposed to the plan is the opposition Socialist People's Party: "The tax minister is in a total mess. The arguments he is using don’t hold water," said Socialist People’s Party (SF) tax spokesperson Jesper Petersen.
http://www.cphpost.dk/component/content/51789.html?task=view
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