Austria Threatens To Block EU Summit Resolution Over Inaction On Migration

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer plans to press fellow EU leaders on the migrant influx at the special summit this week and has threatened to block a joint declaration if nothing is done to curb it

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th February, 2023) Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer plans to press fellow EU leaders on the migrant influx at the special summit this week and has threatened to block a joint declaration if nothing is done to curb it.

Austria and seven other EU countries sent a letter to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the Thursday summit to demand that Brussels reduce the flow of illegal migrants after the conflict in Ukraine stretched the EU's asylum capacity to its limit.

"Empty words are not enough. It is time to make a clear and unambiguous commitment to better protect the external border and use relevant financial means from the EU budget to this end," Nehammer told the German daily Die Welt.

He reiterated that the EU's asylum system was "broken," as evidenced by a surge in asylum bids from migrants who entered the 27-nation bloc illegally. About three-quarters of the 100,000 people who sought asylum in Austria last year had not been registered in any other EU or Schengen member state.

The eight EU nations � Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia � demanded on Monday that the EU executive and the Frontex border protection agency act tougher on illegal migration, increase pushbacks and use visas as leverage against reluctant countries of origin.