The German traffic light coalition wants to make the EU even more attractive for migrants and has already drawn up a plan for this – the “coalition of the willing” (reported by eXXpress). But the proposal by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) could fail because of these “willing people”. In any case, Faeser’s Austrian counterpart, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, is definitely “unwilling” to approve this push for European asylum policy. Above all, he has sharp criticism for Faeser’s idea, as he now clarifies in an interview with the German “Bild” on Tuesday: “I am clearly against such efforts.” According to Karner, anyone who, like Faeser, wants to forge a “coalition of member states willing to accept them” for asylum seekers is sending out the completely wrong signals. He is convinced that such an alliance would create “false expectations” in the countries of origin.
Instead, Karner advocates forming “alliances of reason”. When it comes to migration, the EU should concentrate on those issues on which there is agreement. The Minister of the Interior told the “Bild” that these were robust external border protection, fast procedures and consistent returns.
Karner is not alone in his critical attitude towards the new asylum policy traffic light idea: the eastern EU states also reject a “coalition of the willing” as long as illegal migration to Europe has not been largely stopped. But Denmark, which refuses to be obliged to take in asylum seekers, is also opposed: The Danes tightened their asylum law last year and passed a law that allows asylum seekers to be deported to countries outside the European Union without procedures. There they should then wait in asylum centers for the processing of their application.
Nancy Faeser’s “coalition of the willing” could have more favor with the French and Italians: her first talks with France and Italy on migration issues were “promising”, she said last Friday in Berlin.
