Новости за 20.01.2016

Austria to place cap on number of asylum claims it will process. German president, same day, said it may be “morally and politically” necessary to limit numbers.

The EU steel industry "cannot rely on public funds to survive", says Margrethe Vestager, while assuring that anti-dumping will remain part of talks with China.

Macedonia closed its border with Greece Wednesday, saying closures in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia were preventing migrants from exiting the country and continuing their journey through the Balkans. Greek authorities said some 650 asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were left stuck in a camp on the Macedonian border.

Liberal and Danish People's Party council members in Randers, a Danish provincial town, voted Monday to oblige public institutions to serve pork as an option, in a bid to preserve Danish food culture. One kindergarten, Jennumparken, had stopped serving the meat because many children had refused to eat it.

The chairman of Germany's nuclear waste committee has criticised sharply Sweden's proposed repository and said that Europeans should agree on common standards.

Dutch PM Rutte said refugee numbers must be sharply reduced in coming weeks. EU commission head Juncker said if Schengen falls, the single market, and the euro could follow.

German president Joachim Gauck said on Wednesday that Germany should consider imposing quotas on refugee numbers. "A limitation strategy may be both morally and politically necessary in order to preserve the state’s ability to function,” he is quoted as saying at the Davos forum by the Financial Times.

The French far-right National Front could soon propose "an important change visible for the population" in its economic programme, the party's vice-president said Tuesday, hinting that it could drop its proposal for an exit from the euro, which many say scares moderate voters.

EU military assistance was granted to France after the November attacks in Paris. But its effects have been limited and its implementation is lacking in clarity.

Non-EU nationals registered some 688,354 criminal convictions in the EU in 2014. The EU wants those convictions more easily shared among national authorities to reduce the risk of another Paris-style attack.

Israeli media have highlighted fraud allegations against Sweden’s foreign minister Margot Wallstroem, amid outrage over her criticism of Israeli killing of Palestinians.

The Swedish government on Tuesday made a deal with Morocco on returning unaccompanied minors who don't qualify for asylum and often end up living on the streets in Stockholm and other cities. The announcement comes four days after Sweden decided not to recognise Western Sahara as an independent republic.

Bulgarian law enforcement officials summarily return asylum seekers and migrants to Turkey, often after stealing their belongings and subjecting them to violence, according to Human Rights Watch interviews with refugees and migrants. The Bulgarian Interior Ministry has not yet responded to a complaint from the NGO over alleged abuses.

Greece's former finance minister, Yannis Varoufakis, confirmed on Tuesday in a Skai TV interview that he was instructed last year by prime minister Alexis Tsipras to draw up a Plan X for introducing a parallel currency in case Greece failed to agree a bailout deal.

Five Danish municipalities won't flag the EU's blue flag any more despite water quality at their beaches being fully up to the standards, reports Danmarks Radio. The rules are considered bureaucratic and expensive but in particular a ban on dog bathing at blue flag beaches is very unpopular.

Norway returned 13 migrants Tuesday to Russia under new rules whereby thousands are expected to be deported. Those returned held a visa or residence permit for Russia, police told public broadcaster NRK. The migrants were bused from Kirkenes directly to Russia's Murmansk airbase, where temperatures are currently minus 29 degrees.

Serbia will not allow migrants returning from nearby countries to re-enter its territory, foreign minister Ivica Dacic told journalists after meeting his Slovenian counterpart Karl Erjavec on Tuesday. Dacic explained that Serbia would be forced to act if Croatia, Slovenia and Austria resort to unilateral solutions such as closing borders.

Polish PM Beata Szydlo fended off criticism in an EP debate on Poland amid concerns over the rule of law in the country that had prompted an EU Commission inquiry last week.