LUXEMBOURG (AP) – The latest developments as hundreds of thousands of people seeking safety make an epic trek through Europe. All times local.
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1:10 p.m.
France is proposing to beef up the European Union’s external borders by committing member states to contribute more personnel to the EU’s border agency and eventually setting up a largely autonomous international “corps” that could intervene wherever a crisis appears.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve made the proposal to his EU counterparts at Thursday’s meeting in Luxembourg. French officials said it would be developed by EU leaders at next week’s summit.
The EU is struggling to contain a migrant crisis which has exposed huge weaknesses in both cooperation and manpower as hundreds of thousands have entered the continent fleeing war and seeking a better life.
French officials, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that in the short term, member states would be obliged to contribute more personnel to the Frontex border agency based on their population, wealth and other criteria.
In the long term, France proposes a multinational European border guard corps which would have much more autonomy to act along the EU’s external frontiers when crises appear.
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1:05 p.m.
The Czech Republic is ready to dispatch 50 police officers and up to 100 soldiers in Hungary to help protect the external border of the European Union and Europe’s visa-free Schengen zone.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec says he offered that at a meeting of interior ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in Luxembourg Thursday ahead of a meeting of interior ministers of all EU countries.
Chovanec says Slovakia is also likely offer officers while Poland is considering a possible help.
Over 324,000 migrants and refugees entered Hungary, which has built fences on its southern borders with Serbia and Croatia in an attempt to control their flow.
The Czech government already agreed to dispatch 25 soldiers on the Hungarian border with Croatia to help protect the Schengen border.
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11:55 p.m.
More than any other topic, Austria’s stance toward refugees is determining Sunday’s race for Vienna’s city hall, pitting voters who welcome them against those who fear that a surge of immigrants threatens their own well-being.
Only a fraction of the nearly 200,000 people who crossed into this country last month stayed, with most traveling on to Germany. Still, the Interior Ministry counted over 46,000 requests for refugee status by the end of August, compared to around 28,000 for all of 2014.
A pro-migrant demonstration Saturday brought over 100,000 people to Vienna. But the asylum numbers and the nightly newscasts showing masses of people entering Austria have increased support for the Freedom Party, which believes immigration threatens traditional Austrian values and hurts an already shrinking job market.
Vienna would be a key prize for the Freedom Party, since the city has been governed for 60 years by the Socialists, alone or as the dominant coalition partner.
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11:10 a.m.
Romania’s president says the influx of refugees could spark a resurgence of racism in Europe which he says countries have a duty to reject.
President Klaus Iohannis spoke Thursday at an event to commemorate the Holocaust. Between 1940 and 1944, about 280,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma, or Gypsies, were killed during the pro-fascist regime of Romanian dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu.
Romania was one of four eastern European countries to oppose a European Union resettlement plan for 120,000 asylum-seekers but has since modified its stance.
Iohannis reasserted that Romania could overcome “this complicated situation” with refugees “and easily cope with it.”