Friday

31st Mar 2023

Italy imposes Austria border controls 'for next few days'

  • Italian police are imposing border control checks in Brenner, near the Austrian border (Photo: Jurjen van Enter)

Italian regional authorities announced on Wednesday (2 September) that they are imposing border control checks near Austria.

A statement issued by Bolzano, a German-speaking Alto Adige region in northern Italy, said the police checks are a “temporary measure” to help cope with the number of refugees heading towards Germany.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"Bavaria is witnessing record arrivals of refugees, mainly via the Balkan route, which is creating an unmanageable situation”, the statement said.

Emilia Muller, Bavaria's social affairs minister, issued the request for the border controls.

A Bolzano spokesperson told this website that Italian police have, since midday, started checking IDs on trains that cross the border. She added that the controls would probably continue "for the next few days."

"Police will try to convince people to stay in Brennero [Italian border town], we will take of them, and after a few days they can travel on because they don't want to stay in Italy."

She said Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi supports the police checks.

"It is an agreement between our autonomous province and the prime minister in Rome", she said.

The European Commission, for its part, said it had not yet received formal confirmation from Italian authorities regarding the controls but noted that EU states can reintroduce controls in “unforeseeable events”.

The latest border measures follow similar moves by Austria earlier this week after police discovered 71 bodies, said to be Syrian refugees, in the back of a lorry.

Police in Budapest are, since Tuesday, also blocking some 2,000 people at Keleti Railway Terminus from boarding trains to Austria and Germany, prompting protests.

The European Commission has condoned the Austrian border checks, but is understood to be wary of giving the green light to any larger moves to reintroduce internal borders throughout the EU’s Schengen passport-free zone of 26 member states.

But at the same time, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has warned “the Schengen question will be on the agenda for many [Schengen member states]” if more is not done to distribute asylum seekers.

Just over 100,000 asylum seekers arrived in Germany in August alone, according to a Bavarian official, cited by Reuters.

The issue is dominating news headlines as the influx of migrants is expected to continue over the coming months.

The UNHCR estimated in August that another 3,000 refugees are likely to cross daily from Greece into the Western Balkans and then Hungary for the foreseeable future.

EU commissioner for migration Dimitris Avramopoulos will be in Budapest next week after first visiting Athens and the Greek island of Kos on Thursday and Friday.

He will be joined by commission vice-president Frans Timmermans and the head of the EU’s border agency Frontex, the police agency Europol, and the asylum support office EASO.

Hungary has requested around €8 million in emergency funds from the commission to help create reception facilities and the commission says it is waiting for Greece to make a similar request for emergency aid.

The commission is unable to provide Greece with money on asylum because the Greek government has yet to set up a responsible budgetary authority for EU funds.

“We have allocated the money for Greece, we just haven’t been physically able to transfer the first disbursement”, an EU official said.

Hungary U-turn on migrant trains prompts unrest

Hungary's decision to block migrants from going to Germany has prompted chaotic scenes in Budapest, with PM Orban to meet European Commission chief Juncker on Thursday for talks on the situation.

Exclusive

Sweden waters down EU press-freedom law

Press-freedom groups from Paris to New York have voiced dismay at Sweden's proposal to weaken a landmark EU law against corporate and political bullies.

Top EU prosecutor wants elite corps of specialised investigators

Europe's top prosecutor Laura Kovesi wants to create an elite corps of highly-specialised financial fraud investigators. The demand came in Kovesi's introduction to the annual report published by the Luxembourg-based European Public Prosector's Office.

Opinion

Why can't we stop marches glorifying Nazism on EU streets?

Every year, neo-Nazis come together to pay tribute to Nazi war criminals and their collaborators, from Benito Mussolini to Rudolf Hess, Ante Pavelić, Hristo Lukov, and of course Adolf Hitler, in events that have become rituals on the extreme-right calendar.

Latest News

  1. Ukraine — what's been destroyed so far, and who pays?
  2. EU sending anti-coup mission to Moldova in May
  3. Firms will have to reveal and close gender pay-gap
  4. Why do 83% of Albanians want to leave Albania?
  5. Police violence in rural French water demos sparks protests
  6. Work insecurity: the high cost of ultra-fast grocery deliveries
  7. The overlooked 'crimes against children' ICC arrest warrant
  8. EU approves 2035 phaseout of polluting cars and vans

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting
  2. EFBWWEU Social Dialogue review – publication of the European Commission package and joint statement of ETUFs
  3. Oxfam InternationalPan Africa Program Progress Report 2022 - Post Covid and Beyond
  4. WWFWWF Living Planet Report
  5. Europan Patent OfficeHydrogen patents for a clean energy future: A global trend analysis of innovation along hydrogen value chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us