Prague, July 12 (CTK) – Interior Minister Milan Chovanec has protested against the opinion that the Czech Republic failed to carry out thorough checks in their regions bordering Germany during the recent Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Hamburg, his spokeswoman Klara Peknicova told CTK on Wednesday.
Schuster, an internal security affairs expert of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the German news agency dpa that the Poles and Czechs were active at the external border of the Schengen area but neglected the internal borders. He said the European Commission should promptly check the situation and possibly launch proceedings against the two countries for their violation of EU treaties.
Since such statements depreciate the Czech-German police cooperation, Chovanec wants to address his German counterpart, Thomas de Maiziere, over the issue, Peknicova said.
Chovanec said the Czech police have been in close contact with their German partners and they are not aware of any problems at the joint border.
During the G20 summit, Czech-German police patrols operated in the areas close to the border.
According to dpa, 744 wanted people were arrested within the border checks that Germany renewed last week because of the G20 summit.
According to the Czech police, the arrested had permanent residence in Germany and were identified as wanted persons in the German but not the Czech police systems, which is why only the German police detained them, Chovanec said.
He said he considers Schuster’s statement a political game concerning the German political scene, which has nothing to do in European politics.
Chovanec said the Czech Republic must follow the Schengen rules about the lifting of border controls in its police activities at the internal border. However, the country intensified the checks at the internal borders in connection with the migration crisis. The EC report on the Schengen rules from last spring did not reveal any mistakes on the Czech side, Chovanec said.
