BORDER CONTROLS

The minority Danish Government is getting itself into a mess over the reintroduction of border controls. As I mentioned on 13 May, this was the price extracted by the right-wing Danish People's Party for signing up to the long-term changes in pensions and efterløn, that are supposed to balance the state's finances by 2020.

The pickle comes from having to deal with two very different audiences. Domestically, the reintroduction of border controls, notably on the motorway into Denmark from Germany (though not on the lane the other way), is to deter rising international criminality, notably by Eastern Europeans from Romania and Bulgaria. Such tough talk allows the DPP to burnish its credentials as the party of law and order, and may help its core voter group (pensioners and soon-to-be pensioners) forget that the party has abandoned its cast-iron commitment to efterløn. But it is a nonsense. First, because criminals - being criminals - will simply find another way to get into the country (eg a small boat at night across the Baltic). Secondly, and more importantly, if such a criminal were stupid enough to be found at the border, then by definition they would have had to have committed a crime somewhere other than Denmark. 

The other audience, consisting of fellow E.U. member states and Danish business organisations (Germany is Denmark's biggest trading partner, and the most likely means for getting Denmark out of recession), is concerned about restricting the E.U.'s commitments to the free movement of goods and people, and the possible illegality of the proposed measures under the Schengen Agreements. Here the Government is soft-pedalling the proposed measures, saying that they are merely a question of extra customs officers and spotchecks. Surely nobody could object to something so mild?

The demands of presentation are reflected in the Danish and English versions of the agreement, which are markedly different, much more than translation wrinkles. So different in fact, that there are already mutterings about Denmark "speaking with forked tongue". Keeping the DPP onside is - as, indeed, it has been since 2001 - a key element of the Government's programme. However, obtaining a reputation as a country that can't be trusted must surely outweigh that. Or so you would think.

Watch this space.

Walter Blotscher