Germany has agreed to relax its controversial border controls with Luxembourg. Instead of fixed checkpoints on the A64 motorway, which connects with Luxembourg’s A1 motorway, mobile checks are to be carried out near the Markusberg car park (not to be confused with the Markusbierg tunnel, which is on the A13 motorway approaching the border crossing near Mondorf-les-Bains).
The car park is some 5 kilometres to the west of the previous check point, and before the B51 junction that many Luxembourgers use to descend from the motorway into the centre of Trier.
The change in stance was announced by Home Affairs Minister Léon Gloden (CSV) and his German counterpart Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday on the sidelines of a meeting of internal affairs ministers from German-speaking countries.
Since Germany restarted border controls, there have been concerns regarding the legality of the measure. Legal experts have criticised the reintroduction of controls on Germany’s neighbouring countries, saying it violates the Schengen agreement.
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On Monday, a German court ruled that a police check of a man at the Luxembourg border was unlawful.
Dominik Brodowski, a law professor at Saarland University, was stopped while travelling back from Luxembourg to Saarland. The Administrative Court of Koblenz ruled that the stop was unlawful. The judgement stated that the border control measures had not been sufficiently justified in legal terms.
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Luxembourg has consistently opposed the measure since the reintroduction of checks at the German border. Gloden lodged a complaint with the European Commission last year.