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This is the first time that Austria takes the rotating presidency of the EU on July 1st.
Meeting in Innsbruck, southern Austria, the 28 ministers are trying to define the still vague idea of "landing platforms" organized in Africa for immigrants rescued in the Mediterranean . This idea was adopted at the EU summit in Brussels, which was held at the end of last month.
The meeting of the Austrian Interior Minister, Herbert Fickl, along with his Italian counterpart Matteo Salvini, the architect of the tightening of attitudes towards immigrants in Rome, was important.
The head of the Nationalist League and the Italian Deputy Prime Minister announced a month ago that his country was opening more charter ports hosted by NGOs that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.
In Innsbruck, Salvini asks his European colleagues "not to go to Italian ports for an international mission".
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who challenged the authority of Angela Merkel by announcing that he wants to stop immigrants who have filed applications for damages. asylum in other EU countries at the border, is also present in Innsbruck, described as "informal", during which official decisions will not be taken.
Most immigrants have joined the European Union via Italy and Greece: that is why Seehofer wants to convince his counterparts in these two countries to accept immigrants rejected by the EU. # 39; Germany.
If Rome and Athens refuse, there is the fear of creating a domino effect, the immigrants being sent back from the frontier to the next, following the path opposite to the one who entered at the entrance.
Seehofer already had a discussion on the issue Wednesday, both parties announced that they could reach an agreement in July. Yet Salvini said: "Before accepting a single immigrant to Italy, we want Europe to defend its external borders.When this becomes reality, we will discuss all other topics."
Austria wants to use this new consensus among Europeans: the recognition of the need to block migration flows.
"The EU has managed to change the paradigm of immigration and asylum," Kickl said Monday in the European Parliament. "More than focusing on the receipt of quotas, the focus is now on the effective protection of external borders."
Austria wants to take advantage of the informal meeting in Innsbruck to take a step forward in its program, which contains much more radical proposals. In particular, Vienna wants to impose the measure that it will soon be practically impossible to apply for asylum on the territory of the EU, all applications being submitted to specially developed places in third countries.
Vienna also wants the creation outside the EU of centers where immigrants who have been refused asylum applications and economic immigrants are sent when they can not be deported to their country of origin. # 39; origin.
At the end of the meeting, the German, Italian and Austrian Ministers of the Interior announced their intention to cooperate more closely to "put order" in the current situation.
"Clearly, the goal is to ensure that Europe shifts gears," said the Italian Interior Minister after talks with Austrian and German counterparts.
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