They were set up on September 16, 2024 – now the border controls on the A64 near Trier are gone. At least the permanently installed checkpoint at the Biewerbachtal Bridge near the Dicke Buche car park. “The Biewerbachtalbrücke checkpoint has no longer been in operation since this morning,” said Stefan Döhn, spokesman for the federal police in Trier, on Thursday daily newspaper.
Traffic “passes through”
This means that traffic moves through “normally”. The tent of the permanently installed border post is still on site, but it will most likely be dismantled by a company this weekend. Traffic routing will also be returned to its pre-control status: cars coming from the direction of Luxembourg can then use two lanes again.
The border controls caused long traffic jams, especially during rush hours. Traffic was merged into one lane and slowed down to walking speed so that police officers could look into the cars. Vehicles “worthy of inspection” were then waved out. The federal police first installed themselves at the Markusberg car park – after protests, the checkpoint was then moved further inland, behind the exit into the center of Trier.
Flexible controls instead of checkpoints
Since Thursday, the federal police have been carrying out “flexible checks,” as Döhn explains. This means that cars will be pulled off the motorway again at the Markusberg car park. However, without a checkpoint – and without an extra speed limit: vehicles that are to be checked are pulled “out of the flow of traffic,” says police spokesman Döhn. To do this, the police drive a patrol car in front of the vehicle in question and direct it to the parking lot. “Nobody stands there with a trowel anymore,” says Döhn. “No traffic will be affected in any way,” says Döhn
Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) declared at a ministerial meeting in Burglinster, Luxembourg, on Tuesday that the controls in Trier should be made “more flexible”. The announcement was preceded by a ruling from the Koblenz Administrative Court. The court ruled on Monday that the federal police’s determination of a man’s identity at a border control was unlawful. The reason is that the extension of border controls at German national borders from March to September 2025 was not in accordance with Union law.
Luxembourg complained to the EU
The Luxembourg government had opposed the unpopular controls from the start – and also made several unsuccessful attempts to get rid of them. Interior Minister Léon Gloden sought talks with his German counterparts – first the SPD politician Nancy Faeser, then Dobrindt – several times. In February 2025, Luxembourg even laid officially complained to the EU Commission a. In May of last year, the Interior Ministry called on those affected to… Start complaining: You should give the authorities “feedback” on border controls.
The Federal Police’s approach is also strange when people without valid papers were actually discovered during border controls. They were “deported back” to Luxembourg by being taken to the Wasserbilligerbrück border crossing in a police car. They were then asked to cross the Sauer Bridge to Luxembourg. That explained it big difference in the figures from the Federal Police and Luxembourg authorities. Interior Minister Gloden had told the daily newspaper in the course of this declared that Luxembourg I will not accept anyone who has been turned away at the border.
51,653 cross-border commuters from Germany were working in Luxembourg at the end of 2025. Their number has been declining since 2024.
