BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th March, 2020) With a new wave of migrants crashing onto the Greek border last week, Austria seems to have taken the fate of its borders into its own hands, going as far as to engage the armed forces in a move that signals an apparent lack of confidence in the European Union's ability to prevent a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis.
�On Monday, Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner and Interior Minister Karl Nehammer announced that the nation's military, the Bundesheer, would be sending 2,200 soldiers to the border for what Tanner called "strong and robust border operations" to prevent a crisis akin the one that befell Europe following the German-championed "open arms" policy.
Because of Turkey's decision to no longer curb the flow of migrants transiting into the EU � a pledge it made in a 2016 deal with Brussels � some 35,000 of them have spurted onto the Greek border over the past week. The Greek police's struggle to keep the border secure against migrants' attempts to break through has been deeply concerning to many in Europe.
AUSTRIA GEARS UP TO PREVENT 2015
"The situation on the Turkish-Greek border is not a coincidental humanitarian crisis, but an attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to put Greece and the EU under pressure. Europe will stand together and not be blackmailed," Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said during a press conference.
Austria, which from 2015-2016 used to be a major transit juncture for Germany-bound migrants coming via the Balkan route, has ended up accepting more migrants than any other European country � more than 1 percent of its population. Speaking to journalists, Nehammer said that the country still had about 30,000 unemployed asylum seekers.
In an interview with Sputnik, Roman Haider, an Austrian member of the European Parliament from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), said: "Austria must secure its borders. But there is also no doubt about the fact that the Austrian government has drastically cut our security means, especially the Austrian army. As far as Germany is concerned, I see a relapse into old habits. Chancellor [Angela] Merkel caused immense damage with her welcome policy, but here they go again."
While there seems to be a general unanimity about the need to prevent a new migration crisis in Austria, the drastic decision to mobilize the military has been interpreted by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's opponents as a political move.
"Of course, Chancellor Kurz is relying on the topic of migration and how to prevent illegal migration, but we consider many of those statements to be a kind of 'announcement policy.' That has to do with the fact that on the one hand his coalition partner, the Austrian Greens, are very unreliable when it comes to combating illegal migration," Haider told Sputnik.
According to the FPO lawmaker, Kurz's own party, the Austrian People's Party (OVP), is divided over his migration policies, hence "the voting behavior and some statements of the OVP on the European level totally different than on the national level."
The necessary measures to protect the border against the new migration wave should have been taken much earlier, the lawmaker added.
As divided as Austria might be over the migration issue, it seems nowhere close to how divided Europe in general is. Shortly after Erdogan opened Turkey's borders with the EU and even facilitated the transfer of migrants on state-sponsored buses, he was welcomed in Brussels by European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on March 9.
Just before her talks with Turkey's leader, von der Leyen said that the EU wanted to "develop a workable agreement with Ankara on refugees and migrants." She also said she "had told Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that the EU expects fundamental rights to be respected and implemented, including the right to asylum."
After the meeting, Erdogan skipped the joint press conference, leaving von der Leyen on her own to say that while the two sides had disagreements, they spoke "plainly" and "openly" to one another.�
The vice president of the European Parliament, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, said in an interview with Sputnik that "the EU needs more than ever a fair and effective common asylum system based on the principles of solidarity and fair distribution of refugees. Chancellor Kurz has already stated that he will accept no one, not even children. Leaders like Kurz or [former Italian Interior Minister Matteo] Salvini are factors that only exacerbate the problem and do not help solve it."
With that, Papadimoulis said he believed that European leaders must not succumb to Erdogan's blackmailing.
"Erdogan is using refugees as a tool in order to blackmail Greece and the EU. There is no doubt about that. And it is regrettable that EU leaders do not react harshly but seem to tolerate Erdogan's behaviour, as proven during the latest meetings in Brussels. Under these circumstances, it was imperative for Greece to face the geo-political blackmail and the crisis caused by Erdogan. However, refugees cannot be used as a ping pong ball between Turkey and the EU. The EU leadership must face its responsibilities since the issue is a European issue and not just a bilateral issue between Greece and Turkey," Papadimoulis told Sputnik.
'MERKEL STILL IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT'
On the more strong-worded end, Gilbert Collard, a French lawmaker from the National Front party, said he felt that Erdogan should have never been invited to Brussels given that holding migrants back was his country's responsibility for which Europe had payed. The lawmaker feared that in the obvious absence of a military solution Europe would continue paying Turkey with taxpayer money, much to the dismay of the taxpayer.
"The European Union has become the synthesis of cowardice, it is a precipitate of mediocrity, of renunciation that history will judge," he told Sputnik. "Erdogan plays on velvet. The EU does not represent anything militarily. Europe will just pay him, with taxpayer money. At some point, the people of Europe will react. We must inform people at all costs so that they understand that their future is being organized undemocratically, in small European salons. Only a vote could break this."
Gilles Lebreton, another member of the National Front, concurred with his fellow party member, saying that only the mobilization of European public opinion could reverse the detrimental policy of the EU.
Commenting to Sputnik on the von der Leyen-backed decision of five European countries � Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal � to take in up to 1,500 migrant children stuck at the Greek-Turkish border, Lebreton said he was mostly concerned about these children eventually becoming "pathfinders" for their family members, which would lead to more illegal migration.
"The unaccompanied children present in the Greek islands will be allowed into Europe: Mrs. Merkel is still in the driver's seat and Ursula von der Leyen has to follow, even if this is the wrong message out that will bring in more illegal migrants," he said.
The talks in Brussels featured at least one reassuring thing, he said, and that was that Erdogan failed to push his package of demands that, among other things, stipulated visa facilitation for Turkish nationals wanting to enter Europe.
