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.

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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.

Jean-Claude Juncker (@JunckerEU) I am convening an informal working meeting on migration and asylum issues in Brussels on Sunday, in order to work with a group of Heads of State or Government of Member States interested in finding European solutions ahead of the upcoming #EUCO. #MigrationEU pic.twitter.com/qXJaghR20v

The meeting comes as debates around migration curbs and asylum rules are driving a wedge between the parties in Germany’s coalition government.

Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that Germany stood by its obligation to protect people fleeing war and terrorism and its commitment to keeping Europe together.

“However you cut it, migration is a European challenge perhaps our greatest challenge at the moment,” she said, after the UN refugee agency released figures showing that 68.5m people were forced to flee their homes in 2017, as a result of war, persecution or other violence.

The German chancellor 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.”

The political row in Berlin centres on how to treat people who have already registered an asylum claim in one country, but moved to Germany. This “secondary movements” issue affects Germany more than any other EU state, after 1.1m asylum seekers arrived in 2015.

In a bid to tackle the issue, EU leaders will call for better implementation of existing rules to speed up returns to the EU country of arrival. The EU should “take all necessary internal legislative and administrative measures to counter such movements and to closely cooperate amongst each other to this end,” according to the draft conclusions of a summit declaration to be signed off by all EU leaders next week.

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.”

In another sign of the dominance of migration politics, Hungary’s parliament on Wednesday passed laws to criminalise any individual or group offering to help asylum claimants.



The law would mean that anyone helping asylum seekers could face a year in prison. Known officially as the ‘Stop Soros’ law, it seeks to highlight the role of the billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who has become a target of Hungarian government anger, because he funds organisations to promote democracy and human rights in the country. The key amendment was passed by 159 to 5 votes, as the ruling Fidesz party picked up the support of the far-right Jobbik.



Viktor Orbán, who was re-elected as prime minister in April after an anti-immigrant campaign, has said Soros encourages migration to Hungary. Hitting back, Soros has accused Orbán of waging an “unrelenting propaganda campaign” against him.

Hungary has long taken an uncompromising stance on migration and has rejected EU proposals for taking quotas of refugees, to ease the burden on frontline states, Greece and Italy.



Following this weekend’s summit, all 28 EU leaders will discuss migration at an EU summit on Thursday. A proposal to study the creation of refugee processing centres in North Africa is likely to win the backing of EU leaders, although the plan faces numerous political and legal obstacles.

At the weekend summit EU leaders will pledge to “significantly intensify” work with the main transit countries for migrants, including Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Niger and Tunisia, according to draft conclusions. These countries could get more financial aid to protect their land borders and combat people smugglers.

While this proposal is likely to be uncontroversial with the rest of the EU, another part will raise tensions with central European leaders, who are not expected at the weekend summit.

According to the draft communique, Germany, France, Italy and other countries at the weekend summit, will make clear they are not backing down from a refugee “burden-sharing” scheme. The leaders will call for “swift completion” of a new EU asylum law, stalled for two years over the idea of compulsory refugee quotas, while reiterating the need for “an effective solidarity mechanism” - a shorthand for all member states to help deal with refugees in Europe.