A man has successfully sued the Koblenz Administrative Court against border controls on the German-Luxembourg border. The Koblenz Administrative Court announced that the federal police’s determination of the man’s identity in June 2025 in Perl (Saarland) after entry from Schengen (Luxembourg) was unlawful.
The reason: The underlying extension of border controls at German national borders from March to September 2025 was not carried out in accordance with Union law. The Schengen Border Code only allows a member state to carry out such border controls at its external borders if public order or internal security is threatened, it said.
This could be the case “if a very high number of unauthorized migration movements of third-country nationals suddenly took place between the member states”, so that the authorities came under pressure.
Escape from border control
Border controls not adequately justified
When assessing whether there is a serious threat situation, the member state does have a margin of discretion, but according to the administrative court, the Federal Republic of Germany, which is the defendant here, has violated this. She therefore did not carry out the assessment on a “sustainable factual basis” – and therefore did not adequately justify and document it.
The judges ruled that reference to individual, serious acts of violence committed by foreign nationals “does not indicate that the national authorities are being overwhelmed in general.” In addition, the Federal Republic did not explain that the threat posed by a large number of migrants was a sudden development. The justification was not sufficient for migration movements that – as here – had taken place at the same level over a longer period of time or had already declined again.
The Koblenz Administrative Court has allowed an appeal against the judgment to the Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court.
There have been border controls upon entry at all German national borders again since September 16, 2024. The Federal Ministry of the Interior had ordered it in order to further curb the number of unauthorized entries. They have been extended three times – most recently until mid-September 2026.
Criticism of border controls continues
In the present case, the plaintiff was traveling on a bus from Luxembourg to Saarbrücken when he came across an “identity check that was independent of suspicion” at a rest area on the A8 behind the Perl-Schengen border crossing. Shortly afterwards he sued because he was convinced that the border controls violated the Schengen Border Code.
Border controls are not actually planned in the Schengen area. Especially stationary controls like on the A64 to Luxembourg near Trier are met with criticism – also in Luxembourg. More than 50,000 German cross-border commuters work in Luxembourg.
