Italian Foreign Minister Paolo
Gentiloni has said he was hopeful Vienna would not take any
unilateral action after Austrian Interior Minister Wolfang
Sobotka announced controls would be introduced at the border
with Italy at the Brenner Pass late in May.
"We trust that Vienna will not take unilateral decisions
in the coming months and that Austria will continue to cooperate
closely with us on the refugee crisis," Gentiloni said in an
interview with Die Presse.
Gentiloni added that the Brenner Pass issue was "not just
a bilateral problem.
"Austria and Italy are members of a community and this
community is called the European Union," he said. "The EU has
rules that must be respected: the closure of borders within the
Schengen area cannot be decided by individual States. In this
regard the EU agreements envision precise conditions - that it
is an extreme situation that compromises the country's security
or an emergency situation".
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