BRUSSELS: The EU said on Thursday it may allow countries in Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone to carry out internal border checks for an extra two years to tackle terror threats.

Home Affairs Commis­sio­ner Dimitris Avramopoulos said there was no longer any need for temporary checks that several countries reintroduced last year as a result of Europe’s migration crisis.

But he said the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, would present plans soon to “update” the rules when it came to security reasons, with EU sources saying that could happen in October.

“The Schengen borders code may not be sufficiently adapted to address the evolving security challenges,” Avramopoulos told a news conference in Brussels after talks with EU interior ministers.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2017