(AFP) Austria said Wednesday it will not sign a United Nations migration pact that is set to be adopted in December, in order to “defend its national sovereignty.”
The United States and Hungary have already rejected the Global Compact for Migration, which aims to boost cooperation to address the world’s growing number of migrants.
“The government has agreed … not to sign the United Nations pact and thus not to bind Austria,” said a statement from the ruling coalition led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the centre-right OeVP, stressing “the importance of defending Austria’s national sovereignty.”
Kurz’s coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), has been pushing for Vienna to reject the pact.
