site.btaAustrian Interior Minister Comments on Schengen Enlargement

At a meeting with foreign journalists on Wednesday, Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner outlined the three main challenges facing the Interior Ministry in Vienna: fighting extremism, including Islamism, radicalisation of elements, people denouncing the state and radical climate activists; fighting cybercrime and fighting illegal migration.

On the issue of irregular migration, Karner addressed the evolution of the problem and noted its peak in 2022, when Austria received 112,000 asylum applications, ranking the country second only to Cyprus in the number of migrants per capita. Measures taken, including increased border controls and joint actions with Hungary, Serbia and other countries, Karner said, have had an effect: in 2023, the number of migrants fell to 58,000. By introducing visas for Serbia for Hindus and Tunisians, the number has dropped from 30,000 in 2022 to several hundred in 2023.

All the actions in which the Austrian government is involved, the minister said, have sparked a movement towards tackling the problem on a European scale. Austria's veto on the enlargement of the Schengen area to Bulgaria and Romania and the subsequent agreement, after lengthy negotiations, on the expansion of Schengen by air and sea, which comes into force at the end of March 2024, the minister described as a step towards fulfilling the conditions contributing to a functioning Schengen. The reinforcement of EU external borders and the deployment of Frontex troops on the Bulgarian-Turkish border are also measures contributing to the control of illegal migration, he said.

In response to BTA's question whether it is possible to specify the number of migrants that Austria will return to Bulgaria, which is one of the conditions for Bulgaria's full membership in Schengen, the minister refused to give a number, pointing out that it depends on the regulations of the Dublin agreement. "In a sense, Austria is not a full member of Schengen at the moment either, as Germany has imposed controls on the Austrian-German land border. This is because Schengen is not functioning," Karner said.