Austria announces that, if one condition is met, it will drop its veto against Romania and Bulgaria: “Then nothing will stand in the way of Schengen enlargement”

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  1. **Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg gives assurances that “nothing will stand in the way of Schengen enlargement” if measures are taken so that his country sees a drop in the number of asylum seekers in the coming months.**

    Vienna’s veto of Romania and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession was “for the moment” and not “forever”, he said.

    **”Then nothing will stand in the way of Schengen enlargement”**

    “I am confident that we will be able to really take action here in the next few months so that the numbers go down. Then nothing will stand in the way of Schengen expansion. After all, I didn’t say that we can never agree on this subject, but only at this moment,” Alexander Schallenberg said in an interview with the Austrian news agency APA.

    As for calls by Europe Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) and Chancellor Nehammer to erect fences at the EU’s external borders, Schallenberg says “there would be a legal basis and there would be financial means to do so”.

    Schallenberg, who belongs to the same conservative OeVP party as Chancellor Karl Nehammer, does not see Austria as isolated within the EU by its controversial veto against Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen area and fully supports the federal government’s decision.

    “This is a completely normal discussion process,” defends the head of diplomacy in Vienna, referring to the move to block Schengen enlargement for Romania and Bulgaria.

    **”It’s legitimate to say we need support”**

    If Austria, as a state “in the centre of the continent”, has the highest number of asylum applications in Europe, “then something is wrong”, he argued. Austria is “surrounded by EU states and Schengen states, with the exception of Switzerland and Liechtenstein”.

    With the country facing so many asylum applications, “it is legitimate to say that we need support”. This is not a bilateral problem, but a “pan-European” problem, Schallenberg explained in an interview with APA.

    However, the Foreign Minister is convinced that the discussions in the European Council have led to a “stronger awareness” of these problems.

    On the other hand, Schallenberg described as “total nonsense” press reports that the issue had been raised by ÖVP politicians purely for domestic political reasons. “We don’t want to be left alone with this problem,” he insisted.

    **EU states should “bear together” the protection of external borders**

    Foreign Minister defends Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who used the term “asylum tourism”. “What else can you call it?” he asks. People were “flying to Belgrade under false pretences and using Serbia’s visa-free travel to then be smuggled into the EU,” he said.

    This is “human trafficking” and “abuse of a system that is designed to provide protection to people who really need it”.

    However, “the vast majority of people coming in are Tunisians, Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians” , Schallenberg pointed out. Most of them have no prospect of asylum, but are a burden on the system. At the same time, the possibility of regulated economic migration is needed, he admits.

    Ultimately, however, European countries should “bear the burden” of protecting their external borders together, says the head of diplomacy in Vienna.

    There must be joint management of the EU’s borders and “it would be a logical solution to support the border states, either financially or logistically, to take this on together,” the Austrian foreign minister added. (News.ro)

  2. So, they are using their veto power to blackmail the EU towards a migrant policy, and their position has nothing to do with Romania and Bulgaria. You can see that Austria and Hungary were once together. They could ask Orban how this blackmail tactic works

  3. ELI5 Request: Why is extortion and blackmail tolerated in the European Commission? Power to veto feels like a dictatorial form of power.

  5. So, his govt. vetoes us because migrants fly to Serbia and enter Hungary then Austria. A veto that will be lifted after Romania and Bulgaria will solve a problem that has nothing to do with neither country. Disgusting. Fuck them. Hope they will drown in migrants from Serbia.

  7. Stil makes no sense why Croatia? If they did not want to enlarge then why did enlarge it? It is such an obvious local politics and corruption issue.

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