Austria decided to block Romania's accession to Schengen almost a month ago, with a decision that was based on a problem that the country demands to be solved urgently, but it does not have the scale that the government in Vienna claims, the at least according to the country's vice chancellor, Werner Kogler, at least according to a recent interview.
Austria complained about the fact that it registered more than 100.000 applications today in the course of 2022, a huge number for the country, but Kogler claims that only a third of those who applied remained in the care of the Austrian state, the rest going to other countries, so the basis of the decision to reject Romania's accession to Schengen is a bit underwhelming.
Austria demands the urgent reform of the asylum granting system in the European Union, in order to allow Romania's accession to Schengen, but the situation that the country is registering is not as dramatic as some members of the government wanted to make it seem, but it is hard to say if this will matter in the future.
"The question here should not be what slogan produces a title, but what the solutions actually are. Order and humanity in the asylum problem. The government program clearly sets out which rules must apply and that is the European Convention on Human Rights.
The situation is different from 2015, although there are high registration numbers around 100.000, only about a third of them are asylum seekers who are actually in Austrian basic care. The others move on. However, it is still important to work on solutions. I consider the discussion of fences and walls to be a manageable contribution to the solution.”
