Merkel urges unity on migrants
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday pressed European member states to do their share in helping to deal with the large influx of migrants, work together to strengthen external borders and fight the problems causing people to flee their homelands.
Speaking to parliament before a meeting with other EU leaders today in Brussels, Merkel stressed that countries needed to remember that “solidarity is not a one-way street” – a statement that seemed to take aim at eastern European members who had benefited from EU funding, but resisting taking in refugees.
“It is up to all member states never to lose sight of their responsibility for the whole,” she said, without naming any individual nations. “And that, of course, includes safeguarding our common European values on which the EU was established.”
Germany took in by far the largest number of migrants since 2015. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic are being sued by the European Commission for refusing to accept their share.
Merkel said EU leaders needed to agree upon a fair quota system for taking in asylum-seekers, saying the goal was to have “significant steps” concluded by June. She said she would approach the negotiations with “tenacity and patience”.
Merkel said Germany also planned to become more engaged in European matters overall, noting that her conservative bloc’s coalition agreement with the Social Democrats – who still needed to approve it before a new government was formed – stressed the importance of Europe.