Austria to use EU presidency to focus on anti-immigrant policies

Austria intends to take advantage of its upcoming EU presidency to focus on curbing the flow of migrants into EU state members rather than resettling migrants across EU countries.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz currently heads up a coalition government in Austria, which includes the far-right and anti-immigration Freedom Party.
Austria will take over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU in July and will use its term to focus on anti-immigration policies and border security, Chancellor Kurz said on 9 March.

EU member states have been divided on the issue of migration, with eastern members such as Poland and Hungary refusing to host relocated refugees and rejecting the relocation system quotas.

Speaking at a news conference, Kurz outlined his country’s EU presidency priorities.
“Our aim is very clear – that in Europe there should not only be a dispute over redistribution (of refugees) but also at last a shift of focus towards securing external borders,” he told reporters.

Kurz has said there is no need to argue over the current system of quotas because eastern EU member states refuse to accept them. He has instead argued in favour of a system in which migrants rescued in the Mediterranean are returned to Africa rather than brought to Europe, and has pledged to stop illegal immigration altogether.

“Protection (of borders) alone will not solve the migration question but the decisive question is what happens to people after their rescue – so are they brought to central Europe or are they taken back to countries of origin or other safe regions where they can be provided for?” Kurz said.
The Austrian Chancellor added that enlarging the mission of the EU’s border agency Frontex is a key way to help curb migration flows.

TMP – 21/03/2018

Caption: Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz attends the EU members’ informal meeting of the 27 heads of state or government at European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on February 23, 2018.