Austria has announced plans to build a fence with Slovenia in a bid to slow down the flow of refugees into the country, sparking concern about the future of the border-free Schengen zone.
The European Commission was not informed in advance about the decision, which was announced by the interior minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, in parliament.
"We want to be able to carry out controls on people, and for that one needs certain technical security measures," Austrian leader Werner Fayman said following a cabinet meeting. Barriers, including a fence, may be built at key crossing points with Slovenia. Minister Mikl-Leitner said she had ordered her office to begin exploring possibilities for a "solid, technical barrier several kilometres long".
But in a joint statement after a phone call on Wednesday European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and the Austrian chancellor said they had reiterated their view that “fences have no place in Europe”.
Message to refugees
Earlier, Austrian vice-chancellor
Reinhold Mitterlehner
said the country wanted to send a message to refugees. “Slowly word will spread among the refugees that individual states do not have a form of invitation policy but are at the limits of their capacity and are carrying out tougher controls and security measures,” he said.
Austria, which has previously voiced opposition to Hungary's decision to erect a fence on its borders, is a key transit country for refugees, many of whom pass through the country on their way to Germany and Scandinavia.
In the strongest criticism yet by a German politician of Austria’s handling of the refugee crisis, German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere told a news conference in Berlin that Austria’s handling of the migration crisis was “out of order” as he accused Austrian authorities of driving refugees to the German border under darkness and leaving them at the border.
“The behaviour of Austria in recent days was out of order,” he said.
His comments came as a new poll showed support for Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party has fallen to a three-year low over her handling of the refugee crisis. Germany's top-selling newspaper, Bild, reported that Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria and head of the CDU's sister CSU party, was considering pulling his party's three ministers out of Merkel's cabinet in Berlin in protest at her policies.
Tensions
Mr Seehofer has been one of the most vocal critics of the government’s handling of the crisis, as authorities struggle to cope with the hundreds of thousands of refugees expected to reach Germany this year.
The refugee crisis has sparked tensions between EU member states, amid fears that some countries are waving on refugees to neighbouring countries without ensuring they are properly registered. Bottlenecks have built up at key points such as the Slovenia-Croatia and Slovenia-Austria borders.
While Slovenia and other countries in the region have previously refrained from threatening to erect borders to stop the migrant flow, Slovenian prime minister Miro Cerar said that the country would consider erecting fences if a solution was not found to the crisis.
Approximately 60,000 refugees are believed to have entered Slovenia over the Croatian border since Hungary completed its fence with Croatia on October 16th.
The European Commission has been shifting its attention to border control as it tries to grapple with a migration crisis that has seen more than 700,000 migrants enter the EU this year.
