Migration: Merkel holds off on emergency EU summit

Angela Merkel has held off on calling an emergency EU summit on migration. The issue was top of the agenda during talks with Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkk Rasmussen as he visited Berlin on Friday. Speaking at a press conference, the German Chancellor told journalists EU member states must do the initial groundwork: “The heads of state and government are ready to meet if the preliminary work is done and if an emergency summit is necessary. The Commission is currently working on further suggestions, for example related to the safe country of origin classification. There are already very intensive efforts at the EU level about how we can better deal with this issue. There is already a high level of agreement between Germany and France that gives me a lot of hope that we will be able to come up with a solution.” Migration also an issue for new Polish President New Polish President Andrezj Duda arrived in Germany for an introductory visit later in the day. He fears Poland could be badly affected if an escalation of the crisis in Ukraine sparks a flow of migration westwards.