Tensions between Italy and Austria are skyrocketing after Vienna announced the construction of a 250-meter-long barrier at the Brenner Pass to stop the possible arrival of migrants from our country.
“I asked Calenda to verify all the regulatory passages at European level – said Prime Minister Matteo Renzi – to ask for an account of the correctness of the things Austria is doing. There is friendship with Austria but we demand that European rules are respected”.
The Minister of the Interior, Angelino Alfano, instead judged the decision of Vienna "inexplicable and unjustifiable. In recent months there have been more cases of immigrants who have passed from Austria to Italy than vice versa. We have an effective system of controls and registration”.
The European Commission said it was “very concerned. For now – spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said – we have seen the announcement in the press, but if the plan were to materialize we will look at the situation very seriously”. Barriers, she added, hinder the principle of free movement, which is a fundamental principle of the EU.
“The border management at the Brenner Pass and the new legislative measures on the right to asylum are not desirable, but necessary and just”, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann replied after the council of ministers in Vienna. According to Faymann, "it is absolutely out of the question" to do nothing and welcome people without limits and without controls. “I take responsibility,” concluded the chancellor.
