Juncker says Austria border control would be ‘political catastrophe’

Plans to impose controls on Austria’s border with Italy would be a “political catastrophe” for Europe, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned.

Austria plans to erect a fence at the Brenner Pass it shares with Italy to “channel” people. Part of Europe’s borderless Schengen zone, the Alpine crossing is of the rotues used by refugees and asylum-seekers to head towards northern Europe.

Austria also plans to reintroduce checks at the border as part of the package of anti-migration measures unless Italy does more to stem the flow of refugee arrivals heading to Austria. The Alpine route is a major European transport corridor and a key link between the north and south of the continent, said Juncker during an interview with Germany’s Funke Mediengruppe.

Juncker said Austria’s plan would cause irreparable damage to the whole of Europe, arguing that anything that blocks the Brenner Pass will have serious economic consequences, but more importantly, heavy political consequences.

Austria’s plans to restrict access through the busy route also fuelled protests in Italy. Saturday’s protests turned violent, with Italian police firing teargas at hundreds of protesters hurling stones and smoke bombs as they faced off against lines of police in riot gear.

Two police officers were injured in the clashes, the head of a local Italian police union, Fulvio Coslovi, told Reuters. He said that about 10 demonstrators were being held by police. Local police in Tyrol, Austria said over 600 protesters showed up to the third violent demonstration at the Brenner Pass in just over a month, meeting at the Brenner station in Italy.

The clashes coincided with scuffles in Berlin between far-right marchers calling on the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to resign for allowing more than a million refugees from the Middle East into Germany since last year. hey gathered outside Berlin’s central railway station waving German flags and holding up posters reading “Islamists not welcome” and “Wir sind das Volk” (“We are the people”), a slogan coined by the protesters who ended communist rule in East Germany, adopted last year by the anti-Islam Pegida movement.

With over 28,500 refugees arriving since January 1, Italy has once again become the principal entry point for those arriving in Europe, following a controversial EU-Turkey deal and the closure of the Balkan route up from Greece.

On average 2,500 lorries and 15,000 cars travel daily through the Brenner Pass -- a crucial lifeline for Italy's exports to northern Europe that is already prone to delays even without border checks.

Austria sits at the crossroads of the two major migratory routes, from the Balkans and from Italy, and saw hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers cross its territory in 2015.  Authorities have received around 90,000 asylum applications from people fleeing war, persecution and poverty who have opted to settle in the country.

Juncker said the deal between the EU and Ankara has already yielded results, as Europe is facing a “turnaround.”

“The agreement between the European Union and Turkey has already bore fruit, as the flow of refugees has declared considerably,” he said. Initial figures show that the number of refugees entering Europe from Turkey has declined by 80%.

In addition, the European Commission president also criticised the erection of a fence along the Macedonia’s border with Greece, insisting that this would not deter those fleeing war and persecution from coming into Europe.