Austria's Kurz says to push for rapid EU action on migration

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Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) on Monday gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel two weeks to get a deal with European allies on migration, temporarily defusing a spat between Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their sister party that threatens to collapse the coalition government.

Austria's Kurz says to push for rapid EU action on migration

Kurz, an immigration hard-liner who governs in coalition with the far right, has pledged to prevent a repeat of Europe’s migration crisis in which Austria took in more than 1 percent of its population in asylum seekers. He wants a tougher mandate for Frontex, the EU border agency, to intervene at sea and abroad.

“We have reached a point where the position of most countries goes in the right direction, where most agree that open external borders are the wrong way,” Kurz said after a joint cabinet meeting between the governments of Austria and Bavaria, which lie across the German border from each other.

The leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Austria and other countries will meet on Sunday in Brussels to discuss migration ahead of a full European leaders’ summit on June 28-29.

“We will apply pressure so that there are decisions that go in this direction, and the at least equally important question is whether these decisions will be implemented rapidly,” Kurz told a news conference with the CSU premier of Bavaria, without specifying what those decisions might be.