Bloomberg — European leaders quarreled again over the refugee influx, with fingers pointed at Greece for doing too little to seal its border and at Austria and Slovenia for doing too much.
Conflicting national responses to the expected 1 million new arrivals in 2016 on top of a similar number last year left Germany with the heaviest burden and Chancellor Angela Merkel facing untold political costs.
“We must first avoid a battle among plans A, B and C: It makes no sense at all because it creates divisions within the European Union,” EU President Donald Tusk told reporters after meetings ended in pre-dawn hours on Friday.
No decisions were made at the summit in Brussels, especially after terror attacks struck Turkey, the key transit land for Middle Eastern refugees, and forced Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to cancel his trip. The EU-Turkey meeting was rescheduled for early March.
“The important statement for me today is that we have not only reaffirmed the EU-Turkey action plan, but we have said it is our priority,” Merkel said of the plan to address migration and border controls.
Merkel noted Austria backed the plan, despite its unilateral decision to introduce daily caps on migrants. “In Europe we are all always partners,” she said.
