Ursula von der Leyen is being urged to fund new border fences in Poland and Greece, to stem the flow of migrants into the European Union.
The pressure being applied to the Commission President is coming from members of her own party – the German Christian Democrats (CDU), which is part of the centre-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament.
It comes with political discourse in Germany dominated by the issue of migration, as the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party riding high.
The AfD recently stormed to victory for the first time, winning a vote in the state of Thuringia and coming second in Saxony and Brandenburg.
Speaking to European news outlet Euractiv, Alexander Throm, the CDU’s main MP on home affairs said: “I expect the Federal Government and the EU Commission to ensure that we do not abandon states by the external borders such as Poland and Greece.
“This is a task that affects us all. And anyone who wants secure borders must also commit to border fortifications.”
This would include supporting “structural and technical border protection where necessary”, he added.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has previously criticised the idea of jointly funded border security by the EU and federal governments.
He argued that EU-funded border reinforcement would amount to “refinancing national defence efforts through European financial channels”.
The SPD leader also noted the pre-existing border protection agency Frontex as an existing means of reducing migratory flows.
