The Austrian Prime Minister, Sebastian Kurz, intends to build bridges to “ease North/South and East/West tensions” both on migration and budgetary matters, when his country takes the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in July.
When asked about Austria's approach to migration, Kurz placed clear emphasis on “reinforcing the external borders of the EU”, during a visit of the Austrian government to the European Commission on Wednesday 6 June. He called for the mandate of the European border guard and coast guard corps (Frontex) to be reinforced.
The President of the European institution, Jean-Claude Juncker, has placed “much hope” in Austria's ability, due to its geographical situation and traditionally pro-European stance, to move forward this controversial dossier (see EUROPE 12034). If progress is made on the 'external borders', everything else is “redundant”, he said.
If the 28 fail to reach a consensual agreement at the European summit of late June, the future Austrian Presidency will attempt to reach one at an informal meeting of the European leaders in Salzburg on Thursday 20 September.
Kurz also referred to the work carried out by Austria and other member states, such as Denmark, on a mechanism to facilitate the submission of asylum applications from the countries of origin or of transit. However, this is not included in the programme of the Austrian Presidency, he stressed.
Agreeing on the post-2020 EU budget before May 2019
The young Prime Minister said that the net contributor member states have proposed a post-2020 multiannual financial framework (MFF) equating to 1% of gross national income (GNI). He considers that an exercise aiming to prioritise policies to be financed at European level is inevitable. “The EU needs to be strong on important matters, less so than smaller ones”, he said.
Kurz and Juncker expressed their hopes that the 28 will agree on the MFF before the European elections of May 2019. The Commission President warned against any delay in starting the programmes after 2020, which could lead to the scrappage of 7,000 research jobs and stop a million students from taking part in the Erasmus + youth mobility programme. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)