Due to pressure from several member states, the European Commission has proposed amendments to the Schengen zone to allow internal border controls for as long as three years. Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said that the reforms are needed to address evolving security threats. Border controls first introduced in September 2015 have been reintroduced and extended almost 50 times, compared to only 36 times between 2006 and 2015.The original plan was to have them lifted by the end of 2016, but the EC continues to grant extensions despite vague reasoning from member states.