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Germany, France to renew border checks due to NATO summit
Berlin/Prague - Germany will temporarily renew random border checks at its external borders due to the NATO summit that it organises along with France at the beginning of April, the German Interior Ministry told CTK today.
The Czech Interior Ministry also confirmed to CTK that checks on selected border-crossings within the Schengen area with unguarded internal borders would be introduced due to the NATO summit.
According to the German ministry, France is also preparing similar measures.
The German Interior Ministry explained the measure with the need to prevent the inflow of potential perpetrators of crime. The border checks will also concern internal flights from one Schengen country to another and marine ports.
Germany will host the NATO summit in Baden-Baden and Kehl on April 3-4 together with the French Strasbourg that will probably be the venue of the meeting of NATO countries' representatives.
U.S. President Barack Obama will be among top politicians attending the summit.
People who would like to travel to Germany during the summit must expect to be checked at the border.
However, the German Interior Ministry declined to say for tactical police reasons where precisely border checks will be renewed and when.
It said, however, that the scale of the security measures would be limited to the necessary level.
The Czech Republic joined the Schengen area without border checks in December 2007, along with other new EU members from central Europe and the Baltic states.
The countries which have signed the Schengen treaty can decide to temporarily renew border checks on their external borders if they organise big political or sports events.
In the past, Germany, Austria and Portugal resorted to the measure in connection with soccer championships.
Germany also temporarily renewed border checks due to the G8 summit that was held in Heiligendamm in 2006.
Source: http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/germany-france-to-renew-border-checks-due-to-nato-summit/366071