In a veiled reference to the division among EU countries, Schaeuble told the G20 meeting in Shanghai that Greece had not been shown “excessive” solidarity.
Germany’s finance minister called for a European solution to the migrant crisis on Saturday, amid fresh criticism at home over repeated unsuccessful attempts to share the burden of the problem across the region.
Wolfgang Schaeuble was addressing the “exceptionally difficult situation” facing Greece, where a bottleneck of migrants has built up, adding to the country’s problems as it tackles its precarious financial situation.
But Schaeuble faces not only dissent in Europe but also deep divisions within Germany as to how to deal with the problem.
Politicians from the German state of Bavaria, which borders with Austria, criticised Berlin’s policy and called for the introduction of similar limits to Austria.
Daily limit
“There is no reason to criticise Austria for taking only 80 refugees per day,” Bavaria’s interior minister Joachim Herrmann told newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung.
“Quite the opposite, Germany should introduce a daily limit based on an cap of 200,000 refugees each year.”
Austria, the last stop on the way to Germany for hundreds of thousands of migrants, recently imposed restrictions on its borders, setting it off a domino effect limiting the flow of people and leaving hundreds stranded in Greece.
Reflecting on Greece’s difficulties, Schaeuble said: “That is why we are fighting with others in the European Commission so that we can we can master this European task.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing the biggest test of her decade in office as she struggles to secure a Europe-wide plan for dealing with the flood of migrants. Many want Germany to close its borders instead.
Source: Reuters
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