Welt | 20.06.2018
EU-Kommissionspräsident Jean-Claude Juncker hat für Sonntag einen Sondergipfel mehrerer Staats- und Regierungschefs zu den Themen Migration und Asyl einberufen. Wie die EU-Kommission am Mittwoch weiter mitteilte, soll dabei eine Gruppe „interessierter Mitgliedstaaten“ vor dem regulären EU-Gipfel Ende kommender Woche „an europäischen Lösungen“ arbeiten. Nach Angaben aus EU-Kreisen nehmen an dem „informellen Arbeitstreffen“ neben Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) voraussichtlich auch die Staats- und Regierungschefs aus Bulgarien, Frankreich, Griechenland, Italien, Österreich und Spanien teil.
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The Guardian | 20.06.2018
European leaders to attend emergency ‚mini-summit‘ on migration
Sunday’s meeting could determine future of Germany’s coalition government, which is divided over issue
The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, is convening an informal “mini-summit” on migration and asylum this Sunday that could determine the future of Germany’s coalition government.
In a tweet, Juncker said the “informal working meeting” was designed to “work with a group of heads of state or government of member states interested in finding European solutions” before next week’s European council summit.
According to reports in German media, representatives of the governments of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria and Bulgaria are expected attend the emergency gathering.
The meeting comes as debates around migration curbs and asylum rules are driving a wedge between the parties in Germany’s coalition government.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is under pressure from her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, who is threatening to turn away at the German border from 1 July any asylum seekers already registered in other EU countries, unless Merkel can find a multilateral solution to the dispute with Germany’s EU partners.
“We are expecting German proposals for the solution of the refugee problem for us to comment on,” a senior Greek government official was quoted as saying in German newspaper Bild. “They will be presented at a gathering of the countries affected this weekend.”
Overnight, politicians of Seehofer’s Bavarian Christian Social Union, sister party to Merkel’s CDU, criticised Monday’s Franco-German pledge to create a joint eurozone budget. Markus Söder, Bavaria’s state premier, accused Merkel of trying to gain bilateral deals with EU member states in exchange for compromising Germany’s stance on financial burden-sharing in the eurozone.
Merkel’s spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, on Wednesday rejected the accusation that the chancellor was using concessions on the eurozone budget to “buy” a solution to the migration conflict.
Speaking at a press conference with Austria’s prime minister, Sebastian Kurz, on Wednesday afternoon, Söder called for a “turning point in our migration policy” and endorsed Kurz’s proposal for the creation of military “secure zones” for refugees in north Africa.
Kurz said: “In Europe we face a choice. Either we return to internal borders, or we secure our external borders.”