Austria hands down verdict to EU's 'open door' policy - Russian MP Pushkov
MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, who has called into question the future of the European Union's border-free Schengen zone, has announced the verdict to the EU's open borders convention, Alexei Pushkov, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, has said.
"[It is] the verdict to the 'open door' policy," Pushkov wrote on his Twitter account, when commenting on the Austrian chancellor's remarks that the future of the Schengen treaty would be in doubt if the EU proved to be unable to protect its external borders.
It was reported on Saturday that Austria had temporarily suspended the Schengen treaty.
In an interview with the Oesterreich newspaper, Faymann said that although the suspension of the Schengen treaty was a temporary measure, the neglect of the migration problem was seriously threatening the existence of the Schengen area itself.
Earlier, Austria, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark temporarily introduced border controls in response to the continuing refugee influx from the Middle East and Africa.
The Schengen open borders convention permits passport controls to be temporarily reintroduced on the internal borders if the country in question considers this measure to be necessary for maintaining security and general order. This step, however, does not affect citizens of EU countries and foreigners with valid Schengen visas, but is aimed at detecting illegal migrants.