"After the failure of Angela Merkel's quota plans numerous other states have decided to bypass them and plan their refugee policy without German participation: Austria has agreed on measures for the immediate closure of the Balkan route with the Balkan states," DWN wrote.
The newspaper remarked that "this will also benefit Germany," quoting German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, who said prior to the G20 conference in Shanghai this week that "the number of refugees must fall dramatically, or we will not be able to handle it anymore."
The German news agency DPA called the Vienna meeting, which was officially entitled "Managing Migration Together," a "foreclosure signal from Vienna," and reported Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz as saying that the purpose of the conference is to "send a clear signal that we will reduce the flow (of migrants)."
The Vienna conference was attended by the foreign and interior ministers of Austria, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, in the hope of reaching an agreement between them about restrictions on migration to Europe.
"What we want is a chain reaction of reason," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said.
"We want to generate pressure and pace in order to come to a European solution … this is about the security and stability of Europe," she explained.
German national broadcaster Tagesschau highlighted that no representatives from Germany, Greece or the EU were invited to the meeting, and that Austria also intends to include countries that may become part of alternative migration routes, like Bulgaria and Albania.
"Since there is no willingness in Greece to cooperate as we would wish, we are now trying to cooperate with the west Balkan countries," Kurz explained, Tagesschau reported.
"Macedonia has also declared it will take on this great responsibility to stop the flow of refugees at the Macedonian-Greek border as much as possible with international help," Kurz said.
"Until now nobody has asked the people of Europe whether they want to have mandatory quotas for the forced resettlement of migrants or whether they reject it," Orban told a press conference in Budapest on Wednesday.
The prime minister explained that the referendum will ask Hungarians, "Do you agree that the EU can make a mandatory requirement for the settlement of non-Hungarians in Hungary, even if the parliament does not agree?"
