Austria ignores EU, sets cap on asylum seekers

BRUSSELS — Austria vowed to press ahead early on Friday with plans to cap the number of asylum seekers entering the country despite claims the move would break the law, as European Union leaders struggled to end their fragmented approach to managing Europe’s biggest refugee emergency since World War II.

In tense late night talks on Thursday, the leaders also decided to hold a summit in early March with Turkey, which has been the source of hundreds of thousands of people arriving in the EU over the last year to push Ankara to tighten border controls.

More than 1 million people entered the EU in 2015 fleeing conflict or poverty, and some 84,000 have entered so far this year. Overwhelmed by the numbers, some EU countries have begun tightening border controls.

In the latest in a series of uncoordinated and unilateral measures by nations, Austria announced that it would allow no more than 80 people a day to apply for asylum at its southern border points, as of Friday.

But the EU’s top migration official, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said that “Austria has a legal obligation to accept any asylum application that is made on its territory or at its border.”

In a letter to Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Avramopoulos said that a cap on asylum-seekers “would be plainly incompatible with Austria’s obligations” under international law.

Austria’s chancellor, Werner Faymann, was not moved, saying that his country would only accept 37,500 applications this year as planned.

The new rift laid bare the frustration of nations destabilized by the arrival of so many people, and the lack of confidence that any timely, efficient European solution can be found.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said the room was divided “between those we believe we can find solutions together and those who prefer to act alone.”