site.btaAustrian Vice-Chancellor Kogler Distances Himself from Austrian Government's Stance against Schengen Enlargement

Austrian Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler, leader of the Austrian Green Party, distanced himself Friday from the stance of Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner against the enlargement of the Schengen area.

In a conversation on Austria's domestic and foreign policy with representatives of the International Federation of Journalists, Kogler told BTA that he, like the country's President Alexander Van der Bellen, did not share the opinion of his coalition colleagues.

“They have their reasons for their opinion, pointing out the numbers of migrants and that the overwhelming percentage of them arrive in Austria without having been registered,” Kogler noted. "That is true, but then given that most of the migrants come from Hungary, we should want to take Hungary out of Schengen. Yet we do not want that," the politician continued.

“I would recommend Austria to abandon its position of rejecting enlargement. The President and I are of the opinion that the damage to Austria will be greater if we continue to block enlargement. I support the accession of Bulgaria and Romania if the [border] controls work better there than in Hungary," he said.

Kogler stressed that additional measures should be taken at the border between Bulgaria and Romania. There is already a pilot project on the Bulgarian border, which supports the argument that enlargement should be undertaken.

"We will do our utmost to achieve a breakthrough," Kogler stated. The EU also needs to speed up, simplify and unify asylum procedures for migrants, he underlined.