Enhanced border controls costing Austria millions per day: economic chambers

The reinstatement of border controls between Schengen countries resulting from the refugee crisis has so far cost the Austrian economy 2.5 million euros (2.75 million U.S. dollars) per day, the Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO) stated Thursday.

Further calculations show that should Austria reinstate all of its border controls, this figure would increase to 8.5 million euros per day or at least 1.2 billion euros a year. In the worst-case scenario, with all highway border entry points controlled, the operations would cost up to 2.1 billion euros per year.

The costs were calculated both from waiting times for transportation vehicles at border crossings which are an average of three hours, as well as increased bureaucracy resulting from the reinstated controls.

The WKO said some 60 billion euros worth of export goods were affected by the new measures each day. Other negative effects were recorded for both tourists and cross-border commuters.

Christian Mandl from the WKO said the reinstatement of open-borders in the Schengen zone must "have political priority at a European level," and that free travel is one of the most obvious achievements of the European project. Endit