ROME -- A meeting was set to take place between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in Rome on Thursday under reports that the European Union is “worried” about the Austrian stance towards migrants, particularly with reference to the measures they are putting in place at the Brenner Pass.

 “The European Commission is following the developments in Europe that go against the plan to return” Schengen to normal functionality, in “this case with great concern,” said Min Andreeva, a spokesperson for the EU Commission, in reference to the situation at the Brenner Pass.  “The Commission will value whichever measures are decided or announced by the Austrian Government according to the ‘necessary’ and ‘proportional’ criteria,” she confirmed, “President Juncker will discuss this question with the Italian premier Renzi, in Rome, Thursday.”

 This news comes after Austria’s announcement that they will go ahead with the Brenner border control with 250 police stationed at the border and the possibility that “soldiers will also be invited, but we are leaving that decision to the Minister of Defence,” announced Helmut Tomac, the head of the Tirolian police.  The Austrian authorities have also called for the ability to put checks on trains and roads on the Italian side of the border.  Renzi countered this idea in a letter to Enews stating, “The idea of closing the Brenner is bald-facedly against European rules, let alone against history, against logic and against the future.”

 “The announced commissioning of the barriers built at the Brenner by the Austrians has brought a mountain of fear and mutual distrust between Member States of the same Union, Italy and Austria, who have so far cooperated in good faith,” said European parliamentary member Cécile Kyenge after which the European Commission expressed great concern over the developments in Austria.

 “The Austrian choice is unacceptable,” continued Kyenge, “damages European rules and principles, not least being damaging because the barriers would be placed along a vital arterial link.”  She then added that “ The real solutions are elsewhere: common management of the outer border of the European Union, improvement of the institutions of the Coast Guard and of the European border control.”

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