Austria confirms it will not support Bulgaria and Romania for Schengen

"At the moment there is no approval from Austria for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen", the country's Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on December 6 in Tirana ahead of the EU-Western Balkans summit.

Nehammer said that the Minister of Interior had today expressed Austria's clear position on the issue. Vienna's lack of support is due to the increased migration flow to the country.

According to Nehammer, there are currently 75,000 illegal and undocumented migrants in Austria who have entered via the external borders of the European Union.

"This is not only about the security of Austria, but of the entire EU. This issue must first be clarified," Nehammer said.

The Netherlands also announced on Friday that it is against Bulgaria's Schengen accession at this point, but would support Romania. The two countries are due to vote at a meeting of interior ministers on 8 December. For now, Sofia and Bucharest are expected to be voted in a package, but Romania is also considering options to be separated from Bulgaria.

"The meeting is crucial for two reasons. First, we are still facing Russian aggression against Ukraine and we need to be united, to act together. One of the things we are working on in the EU and the Western Balkans is energy security. At the same time, it is important that we all implement the sanctions. The second issue is migration, which is also a big topic, and we have come to the point of clarifying what we can do, especially my country and other countries. Here, too, we are working closely with the Western Balkans. In many cases, they are transit countries for people moving from Syria or other parts of the world to the north of Europe, and therefore it is particularly important to have harmonisation of visa policy. Because we all apply the same visa policy. So I think we have a very positive agenda and important topics to discuss," said Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

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