Germany adopts policing treaty with Czech Republic

A treaty to boost German and Czech police and customs patrols along the two nations' border has been ratified by Germany's lower house of parliament. The border region has a reputation for the smuggling of crystal meth.
The treaty, signed last year but still dependent on parliamentary approvals, passed quietly in Germany's main chamber on Thursday despite major differences between Prague and Berlin over EU responses to refugee arrivals.
Backing came from the conservatives and Social Democrats in Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition. The cooperation treaty was opposed by the opposition Left party, with the Greens abstaining.
Günter Baumann, a conservative federal parliamentarian from the Erz Mountain region in Germany's Saxony state, bordering the Czech Republic, described the treaty as a "single but important building block" in Europe's security mosaic.
It would create a new basis for "more effective" joint police and customs work on both sides of the 646-kilometer (400-mile) German-Czech border, he said, and incorporate jointly staffed headquarters located at Schwandorf in Bavaria and Petrovice in the Czech Republic.
The treaty now hinges on approval by Germany's upper house of parliament.