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Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz has called for stepping up border controls to shut off the Mediterranean route leading through Italy to central Europe following the closure of the Western Balkan route for migrants.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Turkey "rightfully" wanted to share the burden of more than 2.5 million migrants with the European Union. 

Foreign and Interior Ministers of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia met in Vienna on Wednesday to coordinate moves on reducing the flow of the migrants along the so-called Balkan route.

About 55,000 EU civil servants will receive a pay rise of 2.4% this year that will translate into spending of some EUR 100 M from the bloc's budget, the state-run Bulgarian news agency BTA reported on Tuesday.

EU Commissioner Guenther Oettinger has said that he fears the organization may disintegrate "due to the pressure of populism."

Oettinger, a German politician from Angela Merkel's ruling CDU party, told the German newspaper Bild:

Greece’s lenders give Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras a final deadline until mid-January to implement the agreed reforms, German newspaper Bild noting that the Greek Prime Minister has been doing all kind of tricks since he formed government.

According to the article, Alexis Tsipras completes his first year as prime minister just like the way he started: doing tricks.

Countries that do not share European values of human empathy and solidarity cannot count on receiving money from the bloc, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned in an interview with the newspaper Bild. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has welcomed Germany's introduction of temporary border controls.

He told the German newspaper Bild that the measure was necessary to protect German and European values, Reuters reported.

A German man whose body was found in Borca near Belgrade "was not a member of either the police or intelligence services," said the German security circles.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds the "keys in her hand" that could help Greece get a deal with its international lenders and avert a "terrible" outcome to its debt crisis, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has told the newspaper Bild.