Austria threatens to scupper Cameron's EU negotiations over migrant row

Austria has threatened to torpedo David Cameron’s EU renegotiation in response to Britain's refusal to accept thousands of migrants.

Werner Faymann, the Austrian chancellor, warned he would block Britain’s negotiation package unless Cameron showed “solidarity” and accepted a greater share of the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers flooding into the EU, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

He warned that Austria would raise the issue of migration to a forthcoming round of EU budget talks.

“The next financial framework negotiations are coming up,” Faymann told Austrian television.

“When I think of the British, who have their own catalogue of demands, why should we do anything for them? Because, you have to say, solidarity is not a one-way street.”

Britain’s refusal to take part in a common EU asylum sharing programme is causing private irritation in many EU capitals, not least as Cameron focuses on cutting immigration from EU citizens.

But this is the first time a European leader has publicly attempted to strongarm the United Kingdom by tying the reform package to the migration crisis engulfing the continent.

In Germany, trains carrying a record 2,200 migrants arrived in the country's key southern border region with Austria in the 24 hours to yesterday morning.

Germany has become the top destination for migrants seeking refuge in Europe, and expects to receive 800,000 this year, a record number and four times as many as in 2014.

The country’s first reception centre opened in Bavaria yesterday, designed to house only migrants from south eastern Europe - as part of an effort to deal more quickly with people flooding in from the Balkans, whose chances of being allowed to stay are minimal.

Meanwhile, in the German capital Angela Merkel met with Mariano Rajoy – her Spanish counterpart – who admitted that Spain could do more to assist. Last year figures from Eurostat showed Rajoy’s country took in 1,600 asylum seekers – compared to over 14,000 accepted by Britain.

Spain has so far agreed to take 2,739 more, and Rajoy refused to rule out accepting quotas – depending on the criteria, he said.

Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, however, have refused to back down on the issue of quotas.

In Macedonia, where about 1,500 migrants are waiting to cross the border, fights broke out among frustrated migrants wanting to cross into Greece.

In Greece, the authorities in Athens sent ferries to take 4,000 people off the eastern Aegean islands, which are struggling to cope with the influx.

Source: MENA