“Austria’s Veto on Schengen Expansion Linked to Decrease in Asylum Seekers: Foreign Minister”

Austria will maintain its veto against the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area until it observes a “sustained decrease” in the number of asylum seekers, said Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg in an interview taken on Thursday by Politico.

“What is important for us, to be as honest as possible, is for the number (of migrants) to decrease and for it to be a sustained decrease,” said Minister Schallenberg, according to Agerpres.

He described the Austrian veto as a “warning signal” to Brussels, which “must understand that when we have over 100,000 asylum applications in 12 months, it is difficult for us in Austria to simply let this dysfunctional system to continue”.

The head of Austrian diplomacy refused to give a time horizon for a lifting of this veto, but appreciated that, given the conditions in which the arrivals of illegal migrants continue to increase, the exit from this impasse is not foreseeable in the short term.

He also said the government in Vienna was encouraged by the EU’s “action plan” to strengthen border controls and speed up asylum procedures, but more progress was needed. “As a country located in the heart of Europe, Austria is a great beneficiary of the Schengen area and we want it to work”, the Austrian minister emphasized.

About 110,000 migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa entered Austria last year, almost three times more than the previous year. The number of migrants arriving in 2022 in all EU countries is about one million, an increase of almost 50% compared to the previous year.

If France and Germany had registered as many migrants per capita as Austria, then those two countries alone would have had one million migrants, the Austrian foreign minister noted.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Lucian Bode, said on Friday that Romania ties its hopes of joining the Schengen Area to the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, which it will take over from Sweden in July. Bode says that after the visit of the Austrian interior minister, Karner was convinced “that Romania is fully prepared to join the Schengen area”. The Austrian minister had declared that “there is still a long way to go” for Romania to be a Schengen member.

Editor :
A.C.