EU Commission backs border checks for 5 Schengen nations

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission is recommending that 5 nations from the borderless Schengen travel zone be allowed to extend internal frontier controls for another three months because of the exceptional circumstances caused by migration into Europe.

The European Union's executive said Wednesday that EU nations Austria, Germany, Denmark and Sweden and non-member Norway should be allowed to continue the border checks since the arrival of migrants and asylum-seekers into those countries is still significant. The EU Commission specially mentioned Greece, which still has some 60,000 refugees and migrants.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said the situation had much improved over the past months but added "we are not there yet unfortunately" when unfettered border crossings should become the norm again.