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Today in Austria: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday

Find out what's going on in Austria on Thursday with The Local's short roundup of today's important news.

Published: 3 June 2021 09:59 CEST
. Schönbrunn Palace a on a sunny day in Vienna (Photo by ALEXANDER KLEIN / AFP)
The gardens and flowers of the Schonbrunn Palace are seen on a sunny day in Vienna on July 11, 2013 - a perfect spot for a romantic walk. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER KLEIN (Photo by ALEXANDER KLEIN / AFP)

BioNtech/Pfizer deliveries will be delayed in June

Biontech/Pfizer will deliver 2.5 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to Austria in June, but that there are some fluctuations to the weekly delivery schedule, with lower numbers expected to arrive initially. This will be potentially mitigated by higher deliveries towards the end of the month, broadcaster ORF reports.

Austrians see the EU in a negative light

An Eurobarometer survey has found Austrians see the European Union in a negative light. Only 34 percent rate the EU positively, and only eight percent have a very positive image of the European community. In contrast, five percent of those surveyed in Austria have a very negative and 22 percent have a negative image of the European Union. 39 percent see the EU as neutral. In the opinion of the respondents, the EU should focus on access to vaccines, both in Austria and across the EU.

Mandatory vaccination for Vienna Health Association employees

The Vienna Health Association now only hires people who are willing to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Not only health workers are affected, but also administrative and cleaning staff – and everyone doing an internship, ORF reports. 

New traffic light colours for Austria

Salzburg has joined Burgenland and Carinthia in the yellow/green coronavirus traffic light zone, which denotes low risk. Tyrol and Vorarlberg are the only states now classified as high risk (red/orange).  Medium risk (yellow) prevails in the rest of the country. Last week the criteria for the colour scheme were changed, so there are now five colours on the traffic light. The category for very low risk is new, which extends to up to five new infections per 100,000 inhabitants . This category will be shown by the colour green.

READ MORE: Explained how does Austria’s coronavirus traffic light system work?

Seven day incidence at 36

The seven-day incidence, or the number of new infections with the coronavirus in the past seven days per 100,000 inhabitants, is 36. With the exception of Vorarlberg (88.4) and Tyrol (52.8), all federal states are below 50 – with Salzburg (21) and Burgenland (17.7) having the lowest values.

Boat trips resume on the Danube

Tours on boats along the Danube in Vienna have started again. Every Sunday the MS Kaiserin Elisabeth goes to the Wachau in Dürnstein. The “3G rules” are a prerequisite for being able to take a ride. All passengers must either have a negative Covid-19 test, have been vaccinated for at least three weeks – or be able to prove that they have already had a Covid-19 infection to board. There is also a FFP2 mask requirement inside when not consuming food. Trips to Bratislava will not be possible until August, broadcaster ORF reports

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IMMIGRATION

Border centres and ‘safe’ states: The EU’s major asylum changes explained

UPDATE: The EU parliament has adopted a sweeping reform of Europe's asylum policies that will both harden border procedures and force all the bloc's 27 nations to share responsibility.

Published: 8 April 2024 09:42 CEST
Updated: 11 April 2024 10:29 CEST
Border centres and 'safe' states: The EU's major asylum changes explained

The parliament’s main political groups overcame opposition from far-right and far-left parties to pass the new migration and asylum pact — enshrining a difficult overhaul nearly a decade in the making.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the vote, saying it will “secure European borders… while ensuring the protection of the fundamental rights” of migrants.

“We must be the ones to decide who comes to the European Union and under what circumstances, and not the smugglers and traffickers,” she said.

EU governments — a majority of which previously approved the pact — also welcomed its adoption.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Greece’s migration minister, Dimitris Kairidis, both called it “historic”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe was acting “effectively and humanely” while Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi hailed what he termed “the best possible compromise”.

But there was dissent when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban derided the reform as “another nail in the coffin of the European Union”.

“Unity is dead, secure borders are no more. Hungary will never give in to the mass migration frenzy! We need a change in Brussels in order to Stop Migration!” Orban said in a post on social media platform X.

For very different reasons, migrant charities also slammed the pact, which includes building border centres to hold asylum-seekers and sending some to outside “safe” countries.

Amnesty International said the EU was “shamefully” backing a deal “they know will lead to greater human suffering” while the Red Cross federation urged member states “to guarantee humane conditions for asylum seekers and migrants affected”.

The vote itself was initially disrupted by protesters yelling: “The pact kills — vote no!”, while dozens of demonstrators outside the parliament building in Brussels held up placards with slogans decrying the reform.

The parliament’s far-left grouping, which maintains that the reforms are incompatible with Europe’s commitment to upholding human rights, said it was a “dark day”.

It was “a pact with the devil,” said Damien Careme, a lawmaker from the Greens group.

Border centres

As well as Orban, other far-right lawmakers also opposed the passage of the 10 laws making up the pact as insufficient to stop irregular migrants they accuse of spreading insecurity and threatening to “submerge” European identity.

Marine Le Pen, the figurehead of France’s far-right National Rally, complained the changes would give “legal impunity to NGOs complicit with smugglers”.

She and her party’s leader who sits in the European Parliament, Jordan Bardella, said they would seek to overturn the reform after EU elections in June, which are tipped to boost far-right numbers in the legislature.

The pact’s measures are due to come into force in 2026, after the European Commission first sets out how it would be implemented.

New border centres would hold irregular migrants while their asylum requests are vetted. And deportations of those deemed inadmissible would be sped up.

The pact also requires EU countries to take in thousands of asylum-seekers from “frontline” states such as Italy and Greece, or — if they refuse — to provide money or other resources to the under-pressure nations.

Even ahead of Orban’s broadside, his anti-immigration government reaffirmed Hungary would not be taking in any asylum-seekers.

“This new migration pact practically gives the green light to illegal migration to Europe,” Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said before the vote, adding that Budapest “will not allow illegal migrants to set foot here in Hungary”.

‘EU solidarity’

German’s Scholz said on X that the accord stands for “solidarity among European states” and would “finally relieve the burden on those countries that are particularly hard hit”.

One measure particularly criticised by migrant charities is the sending of asylum-seekers to countries outside the EU deemed “safe”, if the migrant has sufficient ties to that country.

The pact resulted from years of arduous negotiations spurred by a massive inflow of irregular migrants in 2015, many from war-torn Syria and Afghanistan.

Under current EU rules, the arrival country bears responsibility for hosting and vetting asylum-seekers and returning those deemed inadmissible. That has put southern frontline states under pressure and fuelled far-right opposition.

A political breakthrough came in December when a weighted majority of EU countries backed the reforms — overcoming opposition from Hungary and Poland.

In parallel with the reform, the EU has been multiplying the same sort of deal it struck with Turkey in 2016 to stem migratory flows.

It has reached accords with Tunisia and, most recently, Egypt that are portrayed as broader cooperation arrangements. Many lawmakers have, however, criticised the deals.

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