EU’s Tusk calls refugee crisis summit for Sep 23

“This is going to require cooperation with all the European countries and the U.S. and the worldwide community in order to ensure that people are safe, that they are treated with shared humanity and that we also may have to deal with the source of the problem which is the ongoing crisis in Syria”, US President Barack Obama said following talks with Spain’s King Felipe VI.

It’s not our duty as a wealthy country to help where help is needed; it is our duty as human beings.No matter how inconvenient this situation is to us, there should be no questions about whether or not we do it. If a life can be saved, there is absolutely no excuse not to do it.While Germany surprised me pleasantly with its willingsness to take care of people in need, unfortunately there is also a right-wing movement stretching across Europe, concentrating in Eastern Europe – specifically in Hungary. “Not acting would endanger the European project in the hearts of many people”.

Merkel has been criticized by some in her governing coalition because the nation struggles to maintain up with the inflow and by leaders in japanese Europe who say they’re confused by her altering stance.

Although Germany has been the most receptive to refugees and migrants, there is a growing minority protesting at the sheer volume Germany is taking in – predicted to be one million by the end of this year.

Merkel defended her government’s decision last week to re-introduce border controls, especially along the country’s border with Austria, saying this was necessary to enable the registration of asylum-seekers and to facilitate and orderly entry into this country.

The Austrian border is the primary entry level for refugees flooding into Germany, with lots of these migrants first getting into the EU by means of Hungary. Stefan Kornelius, a journalist at left-of-center Süddeutsche Zeitung and the author of a biography of Ms. Merkel, wrote Monday that the move to reinstate border controls represented “the admission of a political miscalculation unlike any she has made in 10 years as chancellor”.

“Threats are not the right way to unity”, she told reporters.

So far, polls have registered little public backlash against Ms. Merkel. A poll for the Bild newspaper conducted over the weekend by INSA, however, found that support for Ms. Merkel’s party had dropped by 1.5 percentage points from the prior week to 40%-a decline that the pollster attributed to the migration crisis. His spokesman said Mr. Tusk will announce on Thursday whether a summit will be held.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, also deputy chancellor, renewed his appeal to other European countries that they allow more refugees.

Slovakia, along with the Czech Republic, and Hungary oppose the Commission relocation scheme, while Poland has flip-flopped on the issue.