The Czech Republic and Austria both announced that they will introduce checks at border crossing points with Slovakia.Continue reading
Only a day after Czechia had temporarily reinstated border controls with Slovakia due to the arrival of growing numbers of number of illegal migrants, the government in Bratislava had promised to strengthen cooperation with Hungary to stem the tide heading towards Western Europe.
The external Schengen borders must be consistently protected against illegal migration, and Slovakia is ready to help Hungary and Serbia in this respect, Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger and Interior Minister Roman Mikulec told journalists in Bratislava on Wednesday.
The Slovak interior minister stressed that the problem of illegal migration must be resolved at a pan-European level. “We are fulfilling one hundred percent of our tasks related to the Schengen borders. If all countries would do this, there would be no secondary migration,” Roman Mikulec said. He added that he believes that providing support to Hungary and other countries to protect the Schengen border could help the Czech Republic and Austria to lift the newly introduced border controls on the Slovakian border. Commenting on the border controls announced in the Czech Republic on Tuesday and in Austria on Wednesday, Eduard Heger said he did not think these measures were right because they “run counter to Schengen.”
Ursula von der Leyen still does not think physical border protection is worth funding. MTI/AP/Virginia Mayo
The common European solution is still missing though as Brussels refuses the recognize the arrival of millions of migrants from the third word as a problem that can, and should be solved. Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen had recently remarked that “there is a longstanding view in the European Commission and in the European parliament that there will be no funding of barbed wire and walls”, meaning the EU will not contribute to physical border protection despite this costing member states billions of Euros annually.
In a similar fashion, Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister also stated that “I would be ashamed to see a fence with a sign ‘Financed by the EU’ on it. These people are not being treated adequately, also by various European countries. An orderly migration must remain possible. We need to find the right balance.”