Dijsselbloem warns EU against setting ceiling on refugee inflows

European nations shouldn’t set limits on the number of refugees they’ll accept, said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the group of euro-area finance ministers.

“We need to get it under control, we need to get the numbers down,” Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch Finance Minister, said in a Bloomberg interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday. “I don’t think you can use an upper limit in the end.”

Some European Union nations have reintroduced border controls as chaos at the bloc’s external frontiers threaten the viability of passport-free travel within the so-called Schengen area. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned last week that Schengen is on the verge of collapse while Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said on Monday that his country must set a limit on the number of refugees it can accept.

The EU has just two months to come up with a solution to the migration crisis before the influx of refugees increases with the next spell of warmer weather, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in Davos on Thursday.

“What happens now is that one member after the other individually are taking measures, starting to close the borders and that is the way I don’t want to go,” Dijsselbloem said. “I want the EU 28 to work together.”

[Bloomberg]