Austria

Greece said on Feb. 25 it was recalling its ambassador in Vienna for consultations, in an ongoing spat with Austria over the handling of Europe's migration crisis.

Austria's interior minister says she is satisfied with the "domino effect" in the Balkans, following her country's decision to limit the reception of refugees.

Austria has limited the number of refugees that will accept this year to 37,500.

Austria has asked the European Commission for EUR 600 M to cover the costs related to providing care for a larger-than-expected number of asylum seekers accepted by the country last year.

The request had been sent by Austrian Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on January 25, Austrian daily Kurier reported on Saturday.

The lifeless body of a Bulgarian national has been found in the Danube river near Vienna, an Austrian daily writes.

Aleksi Aleksiev, 62, was the captain of a cargo ship, according to Kleine Zeitung.

Police found his body around midday on Tuesday near the site where his ship, St Nikola, had dropped anchor.

Bulgaria has attracted some EUR 1.1 B in foreign direct investment over the first three quarters of this year, data from the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has suggested.

The amounts registered are EUR 443.2 M, 355.9 M, and 302.4 M in the three quarters, respectively.

The possible building of a fence on Austria's border with Slovenia could cause a domino effect, according to the Vienna daily Die Presse.

The newspaper reports that Slovenia will soon decide whether to enact similar measures, if Vienna were to implement its announcements.

Austria will construct a fence along its border with Slovenia, Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner has announced.

According to her, the country must take measures in case of deterioration of the situation.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann cast doubt on the workability of the so-called migrant hotspots European leaders plan to create by the end of next month in Greece and Italy to help manage large numbers of refugees. 

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras had telephone contact with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chanceller Werner Faymann to discuss the management of refugees. A statement issued by the Greek government following the call on Saturday states that the three leaders agreed to further cooperate in managing the refugee crisis.

The two-decade-old era of border-free travel in Europe was unravelling on Sept. 14 as countries imposed controls on their frontiers in response to an unprecedented influx of migrants.