BRUSSELS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Austria is poised to streamline the European Union (EU) after it takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU next month, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Wednesday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker following their talks, the visiting chancellor also vowed to play a role of "bridge builder" and bring more "harmony and solidarity" in the EU, which has been in the past years plagued by division over issues like the migrant quota, among others.
Referring to last year's Commission white paper in which Juncker floated five scenarios for the future of the EU, Kurz stressed that "it will be key to have an EU that is getting stronger on the big issues, but is taking a backseat when it comes to smaller issues."
Juncker, for his part, lavished praise on Austria's role as a" bridge builder", saying that's not only because of its "geographical position" but also "its philosophy which is very pro-European".
The president saw eye to eye with Kurz on streamlining the EU. Both of them emphasized "subsidiarity", an EU jargon which, in Juncker's words, "means that the EU or rather the European Commission should do what it does best or what it can do better than the individual member states".
"Of course we also take into account national and regional specificities," Juncker added.
"That's just what the Austrians are like. They know how to differentiate between what can be done jointly in the EU, and what can be done in member states and on the regional level in a better way," he said.
NO CONSUS ON MIGRATION
Though Juncker stressed that the Commission has high hopes on Austria's presidency, both leaders conceded that there's no census among member states on how to overhaul the EU's asylum system.
Austria, in harness with a group of EU member states, has floated a proposal setting up "centers outside of Europe" to process asylum applications.
"I'm of the opinion that when people travel illegally to Europe, they usually come through several countries and they may pick their favorite country for lodging an application for asylum. But that's not the right approach," said Kurz.
The chancellor, whose center-right People's Party is in coalition with far-right Freedom Party, claimed that the proposal was made to "provide protection" to illegal migrants outside of the EU.
"They can have the protection when it's necessary, but they should not have the possibility to just pick the best system for their asylum application," he argued.
The proposal is deemed as a further tweak to the EU's current Dublin Regulation whereby migrants lodge asylum claims in the first EU country they enter.
Previous proposals for a Dublin Regulation change and a fairer refugee distribution across the EU have been strongly advocated by Italy (among others) since 2015, and opposed by several partners such as Austria, Hungary, Poland, and other eastern EU countries.
Striking a conciliatory tone, Juncker said: "We need to find consensus, we need to move towards each other, there's no point in just following dogma here."
EU leaders are set to discuss the migration issue at a summit later this month. But the chance of a breakthrough on it remains slim.
Kurz said if leaders could not thrash out any solution at the summit, they will keep working on it at the informal summit in Salzburg slated for Sept. 23.
