Austria took together with Italy a series of very important decisions, which will have a substantial impact on allowing Romania to join Schengen, the interior ministers Gerhard Karner and Matteo Piantedosi, discussing by phone how they will approach the next meeting of the Council for Justice and Internal Affairs, which will take place in Luxembourg on June 8, 2023.
Austria and Italy want to force the European Commission to reform the asylum system in the European Union, and to increase the number of people who are returned to their countries of origin, after they entered the EU legally, or illegally, and requested asylum, and this for that now the number of those who are sent back to their countries of origin is extremely low, a complaint that Germany also has.
Austria and Italy have also concluded separate pacts with various third countries from which many illegal migrants came, in order to make their returns faster, and to help them stop massive departures, all these measures should, in theory, help Romania's accession in Schengen, but it remains to be seen what their long-term impact will be.
"Italy does not support the prospect of resuming the resettlement mechanism given the failure of the agreement reached by the previous government last June, nor the forms of economic compensation that are seen as equally unsuccessful. The Italian government's negotiating line aims to stop deportations and increase returns.
This should be achieved by strengthening the bilateral cooperation relations already established by Italy, including within the European framework. Issues related to the negotiations on the European Pact for Asylum and Migration were discussed ahead of next week's Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg."
