29/03/2017 (Agence Europe) – Austria has requested the European Commission to continue to exempt the country from the obligation of taking in asylum seekers from Greece and Italy under the relocation system adopted in September 2015. Austria submitted a formal request in this connection on Wednesday 29 March. It already benefited from the exemption in 2016, due to the high numbers of migrants arriving – but after March it was supposed to resume the relocations and meet its "quota". According to Austria's Chancellor Christian Kern, his country has already done enough with regard to taking in asylum seekers. On Wednesday, the Commission provided assurances that it was going to analyse this request, but it had stated the previous day that Austria should "fulfil its legal obligations relating to the Council decisions by accepting the relocations because no country can be exempt from a legally binding Council decision”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)