Chancellor Karl Nehammer affirmed on Sunday his commitment to keeping both Romania and Bulgaria out of Schengen, the border-check-free region within the EU.
Migration is high on the agenda in Austria – both because the number of those entering the country are high and because of a key election expected in January 2023.
Of over 100,000 apprehensions of migrants or asylum seekers, 75,000 have not yet been registered, Nehammer insisted on Sunday. Last week, Vienna vetoed Romania and Bulgaria’s joining of Schengen – despite a recommendation by the European Commission. This prompted criticism from EU partners and domestic parties.
Registering refugees should happen when crossing the EU’s external border, meaning those that have not been registered likely entered from another EU country. Due to analysis of migrant mobile phone data and information from interviews, many appear to have come via Romania or Bulgaria, Nehammer added during an interview with ORF.
Romania and Bulgaria have pointed towards their data, which differs. Nehammer disregarded this, saying they could not know the full extent of the refugee movement through their countries.
Vetoing the two countries had become necessary as few other EU countries were willing to back Austria up. Given that the Netherlands had sought support and failed, Nehammer stressed the necessity of going at it alone, given the lack of allies.
If the Commission does not act, one has to act “forcefully” and at the national level, he noted.
For Nehammer, lifting the veto would only be possible once border protection in Bulgaria and Romania had been improved.
(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de)
Source: euractiv.com
