Germany could LEAVE the ECHR to get a grip on migration

Germany could leave the European Convention on Human Rights if it fails to overhaul the European asylum system, one of the country’s leading conservative politicians has said.

Jens Spahn, minister under Angela Merkel and representative of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the Bundestag, said the move is just one part of a far-reaching plan to reduce migration levels.

British Conservative Party politicians have made similar suggestions, with leader Kemi Badenoch recently indicating she would consider pulling Britain out of the European treaty.

Berlin and London have signed a new deal aimed at tackling immigration-related crime, with Germany tightening its laws to prosecute people smugglers trying to get people into Britain as part of it.

The CDU, which has a strong lead in the polls in Germany ahead of early elections in February, has put strengthening migration policy at the top of its agenda.

The party’s leader, Friedrich Merz, who is likely to become chancellor, has said he will declare a national emergency to allow a much larger number of asylum seekers to be returned to Germany’s borders.

Allies of Merz, including Spahn, believe that European courts have defined the right to asylum too broadly and generally than set out in the original Convention and other refugee agreements drawn up after World War II.

“We need to get back to the fundamental principle of providing protection,” Spahn said The times. ‘Yes, we want to provide protection, but we also want to have control and be able to decide when, what and why.’

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in Strasbourg, eastern France

He is convinced that other European countries are willing to work with Germany to tackle the migration crisis and change the law to strengthen national sovereignty.

‘If you come to the conclusion – and this is the debate that is going on in Britain at the moment too – that these things cannot be changed because there is no majority in favor, then of course you need to think again about your membership. (of the ECHR),” Spahn told The Times.

“It is not ordained by God that we should be members in all these things. We are happy to be a member, we are convinced multilateralists, but it must also yield something.’

All 46 members of the Council of Europe, including Great Britain, have signed the ECHR. All 27 EU countries are also bound by the treaty.

Changing the implementation of the law would require rewriting EU rules, as well as the rules surrounding the ECHR itself.

The former health minister, who is touted for a new ministerial job if Merz becomes chancellor, added that he is willing to risk disagreements with other European leaders to serve his country’s interests and protect the German people.

Spahn said his party had learned from the “mistakes” of the Merkel era, including on migration, after its 2015 decision to keep Germany’s borders open.

Between 2015 and 2017, Germany received around half of all asylum applications submitted across the EU, with 1.1 million applications submitted in 2015 alone.

The country has registered 236,400 asylum applications and 71,000 illegal border crossings so far this year.

About 20,110 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats in the five months since Keir Starmer entered Downing Street

Kemi Badenoch recently indicated that she would consider withdrawing Britain from the European treaty

These numbers are lower than in 2023, but higher than the numbers since the 2015 migrant crisis.

In Britain, 99,790 people applied for asylum in the year to September, which was 1% more than in the year ending September 2023.

Figures from late last month showed net migration in the year to June 2023 reaching a record 906,000.

Meanwhile, around 20,110 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats in the five months since Keir Starmer entered Downing Street.