German Chancellor Angela Merkel | John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images Angela Merkel: Link EU funds to migrant integration Europe needs new start, German chancellor says ahead of summit.

BERLIN — The distribution of EU funds should be linked to member countries' willingness to accept and integrate migrants, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, ahead of an informal summit in Brussels where EU leaders will discuss the bloc's next long-term budget.

“With the distribution of structural funds, we must ensure that the allocation criteria in future reflect the engagement of many regions and municipalities in absorbing and integrating migrants,” Merkel told the Bundestag.

“Solidarity cannot be a one-way street," Merkel said.

The upcoming debate on the bloc's financial framework between 2021 and 2027 will be a chance to look at the finances of the EU as a whole, Merkel said. She said Britain's departure from the EU — which will leave a hole of €14 billion per year in the budget — means the bloc has to prepare for change.

"We need a new start for Europe," she said. "More than ever we need European answers to the pressing, big questions of our time."

The chancellor also called on the EU to beef up resources for its border protection agency, Frontex, saying: "The European Union has 14,000 kilometers of external borders, meaning Frontex's staffing needs to be massively improved."

Merkel reiterated that a new coalition between her conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) would be pro-European, saying "it is no coincidence that the first chapter of the coalition agreement is on Europe."

Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc will vote on the coalition deal at a party meeting on February 26. The results of a vote by SPD members are expected on March 4.