Border controls debated at the Nordic Council Theme Session in Oslo
According to Danish media reports, the Nordic Council meeting will see proposals from the Danish Conservative People’s Party regarding the implementation of further border controls for travellers from Sweden into Denmark.
The party will argue that Sweden is harbouring 40,000 unregistered refugees, has hotspots of radicalism such as Rosengård in Malmö, and that there is a Swedish terror suspect.
The opening speaker at the council debate will be Anne Berner, Finnish minister for Nordic co-operation.
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The impact of border controls on Nordic co-operation
Damaging controls
Anne has previously argued strongly that border controls damage the Nordic Region and has given her assurance that the ministers for Nordic co-operation are working on several fronts to have them removed.
“We want to retain freedom of movement in the Nordic Region as well as Nordic values. We’ve always helped and supported one another. We can’t turn against one another now,” she said at a Nordic conference in Turku in January.
It has now been over three months since the introduction of border controls and several reports and analyses as to their impact have since followed.
“We want to retain freedom of movement in the Nordic Region as well as Nordic values. We’ve always helped and supported one another. We can’t turn against one another now.”Increased costs
An analysis by the Øresund Institute shows that Skånetrafiken’s sale of commuter passes for the Øresund crossing has fallen by eight per cent, in part due to the fact that more than one in ten commuters stopped taking the train in January and February 2016. This has dealt a blow to expected revenues and the five per cent increase in rail travel that Skånetrafiken/DSB was expecting this year.
News agency News Øresund reports on commuters handing in their notice, and on refugees risking death by walking through the Øresund tunnel.
According to a new report by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Southern Sweden, border controls result in an annual loss to society of SEK 1.5 billion through delays to commuters and the shrinking market potential of the Øresund region, while other analysts believe the impact is less.
Danish-Swedish negotiations
Both countries are preparing for protracted negotiations. Denmark and Sweden are negotiating on how the controls can be made less damaging, such as by way of combined ID and border checks at Copenhagen Airport train station.
“Border controls should be a temporary reaction to an extraordinary situation. Yet we’re seeing that the flow of refugees to the Nordic Region may continue for many years to come. Hence we will be forced to discuss the impact of border controls on Nordic co-operation,” says this year’s president of the Nordic Council, Henrik Dam Kristensen.
Border controls in 2016
Sweden’s decision to impose border controls for travellers arriving in the country from Denmark as of 4 January this year was unprecedented. Nordic citizens travelling between Denmark and Sweden have not needed to present ID since the passport union came into effect in the 1950s. As a response, the Danish government introduced temporary border controls with Germany. Finland introduced visa requirements for travellers on ferries from Germany, while Norway stepped up checks at its internal borders. To this end, the open, borderless Nordic Region has disappeared from view.
