France will temporarily reintroduce checks at its borders from 1 November. What does this mean in practice, and how will it affect people travelling to the country from Belgium?

France announced in mid-October that it would reintroduce stricter border checks with Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland from 1 November, citing concerns over irregular immigration and “serious threats posed by high-level terrorist activities.” The checks will last six months.

Borders are nominally open between countries in the Schengen area, but nations can temporarily bring in border checks. While France’s latest announcement on border controls made headlines, it marks almost a decade of such checks in the country. Checks were first introduced in December 2015 following the Paris terrorist attacks.

Since then, France informed the European Commission of nearly 20 extensions related to various security concerns, including the 2024 Paris Olympics. The latest move is an extension of the current border control measures, ending on 31 October. “We are simply renewing the checks that have been in place since 2015,” a spokesperson for the French Home Affairs Ministry told The Brussels Times.

Practical impact

The latest announcement of France’s extension of border controls caused particular concern in neighbouring countries such as Belgium, as thousands of people cross the border into France from these countries every day. Belgian transport federation Febetra expressed its dissatisfaction with the news, arguing that it would be costly and result in heavy traffic.

However, spokesperson for outgoing Home Affairs Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), Nick Gyselinck, assured The Brussels Times that the impact would be limited. “When France brought back this mechanism for six months ahead of and during the Olympics, people coming from Belgium did not experience any real problems. It looks like this will again be the case, so we don’t expect disruptions or extensive traffic jams.”