To no surprise, the European Union summit in Brussels has ended without important decisions, but it has not failed to leave a sour flavor of a growing rift between old members and the East European countries. The conflict is over the distribution of refugees under an already approved quota principle which has been vocally opposed by some East European countries including Poland and Hungary. The Bulgarian prime minister has once again confirmed Sofia's readiness to comply with its obligations but he explicitly opposed the idea of cutting European funds allocated to countries which accept few or refuse to accept migrants.

The conflict emerged on the eve of the EU summit in Brussels, as Austria's Chancellor Werner Faymann threatened East European countries that their EU subsidies would be cut while they refused to accept refugees. „Solidarity in Europe is not a one-way street”, the chancellor stated and hinted he did not rule out a cut in Austria's contribution to the EU budget. „The refugee crisis burdens national budgets and given that some countries refuse to show solidarity and take on some of that burden, then for net payers such as Austria it becomes increasingly difficult to contribute such large sums to the European budget”. The Austrian ambassador to Bulgaria says more about Vienna's hardened tone of voice:

„It is already quite clear that neither country affected by the refugee flow is in a position to deal with the problem on its own”, Austrian Ambassador Roland Hauser explains. „There is a single European solution possible and its name is solidarity. It is wrong when EU member countries pretend that this problem has nothing to do with them. No one has a right to turn their back on this problem and this is also valid for the so-called net beneficiaries of European aid. Austria's idea as a relatively small country which however contributes a larger amount to the EU than it receives as subsidies, is in fact to appeal to the core value of the European Union - solidaritythrough the initiative for reception of refugees from Turkey”.

As a matter of fact the unprecedented refugee wave that this summer caught West Europe unprepared placed Bulgaria in the same position two years earlier. Back then this country as well as Greece and Italy appealed in vain for solidarity in the distribution of the burden of migration. Probably for this reason Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov so pungently commented Austria's idea for cuts to European subsidies and warned that „this issue raised in this way could cause many commotions in EU and place many prime ministersin a very delicate situation ". The Austrian chancellor termed the refugee crisis “a decisive test” for the European Union. Has this crisis the potential to become a stumbling block for the EU unity?

„The refugee crisis is beyond doubt one of the greatest challenges the EU has seen since it emerged. However, the EU has always been able to find the right solution”, Ambassador Hauser argued. „I believe that the same will happen this time too and Europeans will demonstrate rationality and solidarity in solving the crisis. The way out of this situation goes through the settlement of the conflict in Syria and Iraq which will take some time. And it also goes through creating security zones, hot registration points for refugees and their further distribution, and last but not least, through secure protection of EU borders. These are exactly the topics of the EU summit in Brussels. However, the most important objective is to work out a joint European migration policy for selection of the people who need protection most and their differentiation from ones who have other reasons to migrate”.

Both the migration flow and potential terrorists have benefited from the Schengen Agreement and the absence of border control. The European Commission has already prepared a concept for reinforcement of EU outer border security. „Bulgaria has been dealing with border protection on its own but in case there is financial aid we won't refuse. Let everybody work hard to solve the problem, and if they can't, let others help”, Bulgarian PM Borissov commented. As is known Bulgaria has for quite some time been waiting to enter the border control free zone. However, does Schengen have a future?

„The Schengen Agreement is currently put to an acid test”, the Austrian Ambassador Roland Hauser says. „Fences are built in the Schengen zone, and border control has been resumed. The European Commission has been mulling changes in this regard so I do not think that this is the right moment for Bulgaria to insist on accession. The future of the Schengen Agreement is not clear but it is set to undergo substantial changes. So, Bulgaria shall have to wait and when the new framework emerges it should put its accession on the agenda. I have no doubt that at that point Austria will support Bulgaria”.

English version Daniela Konstantinova