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Austria is ready to consider a limited rollback of its veto on Bulgaria and Romania accession to the border-free Schengen area, if Brussels steps in to support stronger policing at the bloc’s frontiers.
Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner told public broadcaster ORF on Monday that Vienna had communicated “clear conditions” to the European Commission, which needed to be met in order for it to consider allowing passport-free travel to and from airports in Romania and Bulgaria in a first stage. Land border checks would remain in place for the time being.
“The point is that we need progress in the area of EU external border protection,” said Karner, calling for “massive” adaptations. “It’s now the commission’s turn.”
The two countries had been waiting to join Schengen for over a decade, with Austria sparking anger in Sofia and Bucharest last December, when it blocked their accession to the EU free-movement area. The row has rumbled on for months, with Bucharest even threatening to sue Vienna for billions of euros in compensation and expanding the dispute to an offshore gasfield project.
The Netherlands also exercised a veto, but only against Bulgaria. Phased-in accession, with airports first and land borders at a later stage, had been touted as a compromise before, but both Austria and the Netherlands baulked at the idea.
Austria told the commission that it would back down if three measures were implemented, an official at the Austrian interior ministry told the Financial Times.
First, the Austrian government has demanded that funding is provided to triple the current Frontex border force deployment in Bulgaria and Romania. Austrian officials would also need to be deployed to both countries.
Second, Vienna is insisting that Bulgaria and Romania upgrade their external borders with an uninterrupted fence that would seal the countries off from non-EU countries, specifically Serbia and Turkey.
Third, the two Southeastern EU countries will have to accept people who are declined asylum in Austria and first entered the bloc via Romania or Bulgaria. That condition enforces existing rules under the so-called Dublin treaty, requiring asylum seekers to lodge their claims in the first EU country they reach.
Vienna has highlighted Syrian and Afghan migrants it wishes to send back. Bucharest and Sofia argue that only a small minority of people who cross into the bloc via Turkey actually transit their territory, and that it is rather via Greece, Serbia and Hungary that those asylum seekers reach Austria.
Greece and Hungary are members of Schengen and the EU while Serbia is not.
No timetable has been given for the measures to be met by Austria, but they are unlikely to fall into place this year.
Austria’s conservative People’s party, which governs in coalition with the Greens, has toughened its stance in immigration in recent months as its position in the polls has slipped and support for the far-right Freedom party has surged ahead of elections next October.
The commission welcomed Austria’s announcement as “positive” adding that it was standing ready to provide support, including by reinforcing Frontex deployments at borders.
“Bulgaria and Romania are ready to join the Schengen area,” said commission spokesman Christian Wigand.
The Netherlands has said it needs further assessment about the readiness of Bulgaria but that it was prepared to accept Romania. However, Wigand said the two countries had always been dealt with together.
Dutch immigration minister Eric van der Burg told reporters in Brussels last week that he needed to analyse the results of an EU fact finding mission to Bulgaria that has just taken place. Any decision would need approval by the Dutch parliament, he added.
“If all the information is there and we can see that Bulgaria has done the things they have to do we will decide when is the moment for Bulgaria,” van der Burg said.
Romania and Bulgaria both welcomed the Austrian move as a first step and said they wanted to achieve full membership quickly.
Romanian premier Marcel Ciolacu said it was important that Austria had become “more flexible” and expressed confidence that talks would continue next year about land borders.
Ciolacu noted the situation in Bulgaria was different, with the Netherlands still having to approve Sofia’s membership.
“There were elections in the Netherlands and a decision is coming regarding Bulgaria,” Ciolacu said. “We are waiting for that decision . . . and [then] we’ll make a plan.”
Bulgarian prime minister Nikolay Denkov said on Sunday that Sofia also wanted full Schengen membership. “We are continuing the negotiations,” he told state radio BNR. “If someone wants other rules that are specific to Bulgaria, this is categorically unacceptable.”
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