Austrian cap frustrates EU efforts to tackle migrant crisis

The Austrian government said that from Friday it will restrict the number of migrants allowed to enter the country to 3,200 migrants and only 80 a day will be allowed to apply for asylum in Austria.

“Politically I say we’ll stick with it. Sweden and Germany will have to speak for themselves but it’s unthinkable for Austria to take on the asylum seekers for the whole of Europe”, Werner Faymann said before a meeting of European leaders in Brussels.

European Council President Donald Tusk speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, Feb. 19, 2016.

Officials said leaders at Thursday’s talks argued over conflicting national reactions to the migrant influx, and the potential collapse of Europe’s border-free travel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for an European Union summit at the European Union…

But many doubt it would work and have pushed towards beefing up border controls along the migration routes, which could eventually lead to tens of thousands of people being stuck in Greece, giving rise to major humanitarian problems in a country already struggling with its own deep financial crisis.

But Faymann blamed the failure of the European migration and refugee policies, saying the bloc’s relocation plan to ease the burden on most-affected countries was not working and criticizing central-eastern EU members who have stalled it.

An EU official says the meeting is being scheduled for March 5.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was due to meet European Union leaders here on Thursday and hear their complaints that the deal isn’t being implemented fast enough, but he canceled his trip after at least 28 people were killed in a bomb blast in Ankara on Wednesday. “Without stemming the flows, there is no hope”, the envoy said.

The four easterners, which have also strongly opposed the German proposal for distributing refugees around the European Union, have been backpedalling and increasingly seek to portray their proposal as another leg of EU’s strategy, not an alternative to seeking progress with Turkey.