Austria Proposes EU Military Border Assistance

Austria has proposed Thursday the European Union's armed forces' commitment to helping the bloc's border guards stop undocumented migrants.

These statements have come as the far-right coalition in Austria is demanding tougher measures of control on EU territory.

Austrian Defence Minister Mario Kunasek has stressed his plan during a closed-door meeting in Vienna, which is based on a practice of the past when soldiers have been sent to the border.

He said that according to the plan, soldiers should be under police control.

“We must support our borders with efficiency”, Kunasek told reporters after the meeting, saying there has been a positive “discretion” for this proposal.

Some governments within the EU have voiced concern, reflecting divisions among member states about how to deal with the migration issue.

Austria is determined to prevent a repeat of the 2015 influx of migrants, with more than 1 million migrants arriving in Europe from North Africa and the Middle East.

Italy and Hungary have also sharply opposed the current EU policy of migration, ordering the closure of most ports from which migrants can enter.

But Germany and Estonia have been among the countries that have questioned Austria's plan.

“There are few roads, even on the theoretical basis of how the military can be engaged in border areas”, said Estonia Defence Minister Yuri Luik.

“If we don't have a military conflict, everything else is left to police”, he has told the Reuters news agency.

The European Commission has proposed increasing the number of border guards in the EU to 10,000 troops, down from only a few hundred now, under the next seven-year budget starting in 2021.