Germany wants to extend its planned border controls beyond February and has already discussed this with other European powers, according to local media reports published Sunday.
Under the plan, Germany would continue to control its borders until after next year's federal elections in the second half of the year, rather than stopping controls in February as originally suggested, German newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" said.
The German government mentioned the plan in a meeting of European diplomats in Brussels, according to the newsmagazine Der Spiegel.
At the meeting, a representative from the European Commission said that Germany needed to be more specific about using a risk of terrorism as its reason for continuing border checks.
According to Spiegel, German government representatives argued that controls on Europe's external borders were not working well enough. It also said it had information that some refugees entering Germany were terrorists.
German politician Stephan Mayer told Welt am Sonntag, "Should the EU Commission not allow the extension, which I wouldn't be able to understand, then Germany must make the independent decision to continue controls at the Bavarian-Austrian border."
Germany is part of the Schengen area, which has passport-free travel across 26 countries without border checks.
Last year's influx of more than 1 million migrants raised concerns about security however, and in November EU trade ministers gave the green light to Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway to extend temporary border checks for three months until February.
