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Refugees and migrants leave Sentilj. Photographer: Vladimir Simicek/AFP/Getty Images

Austria plans to build the first fence within the European Union’s borderless Schengen area to control the arrival of migrants, as the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II renewed pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to give up her open-door policy.

While the actual shape of the barrier on its border with Slovenia still needs to be worked out, there won’t be any razor wire on it, as there is in neighboring Hungary, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said Wednesday. There won’t be a fence around the entire country, either, he said.

"We want to be able to enact control, and for that, we need technical security," Faymann told reporters in Vienna after a government meeting. Separately, Slovenia may start to build “technical barriers” on the Croatian border if the migrant crisis doesn’t abate, Prime Minister Miro Cerar told reporters in Ljubljana.

Austria’s decision to build a fence within Schengen -- months after the government in Vienna had criticized neighboring Hungary’s decision to erect a barrier of its own at the southeastern edges of the passport-free area -- showed growing concern that free movement within the EU, one of the bloc’s central principles, may be jeopardized as people displaced by conflicts in the Middle East trek through the Balkans.

Merkel Pressure

The news drew notice from Brussels, where EU Commission officials said they haven’t been informed of Austria’s intentions. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was planning to address the issue with Faymann Wednesday, a spokeswoman said, while commending Austria’s approach to the crisis at a Sunday meeting.

Germany’s Merkel has insisted that Europe can’t put up new walls and must welcome war refugees. Her stance came under fire Wednesday from party allies in the German federal state of Bavaria, which borders Austria, who renewed charges that her decision not to apply EU rules in her handling of the nation’s refugee crisis violates German laws.

Germany must work with EU partners to stop the uncontrolled influx of refugees, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Wednesday in Berlin. Those fleeing war-torn Afghanistan should no longer be admitted as Germany and its allies have a military presence there to allow civilians to stay there instead of fleeing to Europe, Schaeuble said.

‘EU Crisis’

While EU rules do allow the temporary re-imposition of border controls when faced with massive influxes, the new efforts send a worrying political message that countries are no longer committed to open borders, said Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels.

“Unless something is done, we will see more and more fences and border controls, and then we will have a Schengen crisis, and if we have a Schengen crisis, we will have an EU crisis,” said Mortera-Martinez.

The leaders of 11 EU and Balkan countries met Sunday in Brussels and agreed on a 17-point plan that offered short-term fixes for the 1 million or more migrants expected in the bloc this year, including sending policemen to help Slovenia and building emergency housing.

Tensions remain. Serbia won’t permanently house tens of thousands of refugees as part of a broader agreement with the EU, Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in e-mailed comments on Wednesday, refuting media reports. The country will prepare “temporary reception centers,” he said.

“We cannot and will not turn Serbia into a concentration camp,” Vulin said. “‘These people don’t want to stay in Serbia, they don’t want to be anywhere except in Germany, Sweden, Austria, countries that are not in the Balkans.”

— With assistance by Ian Wishart, Gregory Viscusi, Boris Cerni, and Misha Savic

(Adds German finance minister in ninth paragraph, Serbian official in last.)