13 December 2022•Update: 13 December 2022
VIENNA
Austria plans to make five demands at an upcoming EU summit in Brussels that urgently need to be implemented at the EU level, Austrian daily Krone reported.
According to the report, the demands are:
• The EU Commission should pay for police operations abroad that serve to combat illegal migration. In addition, it should increasingly support external border countries in border protection, in particular with financial resources for future infrastructure projects (e.g. fence construction on the border from Bulgaria to Türkiye).
• The EU Commission is to have a "Rejection Directive" drawn up – analogous to the Temporary Protection Directive (a temporary protection mechanism including access to the labor market).
• Asylum procedures in safe third countries should be made possible – a model that Denmark and the UK, for example, are pursuing.
• It should be easier to revoke the protection status of persons who have committed crimes.
• The EU Commission is to set up and finance a pilot project for rapid asylum procedures at the EU's external borders.
The federal government has already taken "several other measures to ensure that the asylum brake is effective and that the asylum pressure on Austria is reduced," Krone quoted an unnamed official from Vienna as saying.
In addition, a joint police operation with Hungary, known as Operation Fox, is to be carried out. The aim of the operation is to make it impossible for illegal migrants to enter Austria.
Austria had previously caused a stir by vetoing the Schengen zone accession of Romania and Bulgaria. According to Krone, the Austrian government thus intends to increase the pressure on the EU Commission.
