German Chancellor Angela Merkel downplayed expectations of a major breakthrough being reached at Sunday’s hastily-arranged talks between some EU leaders on the migration dispute dividing Europe.
“The meeting on Sunday is a consultation and working meeting at which there will be no concluding statement,” she told a Beirut news conference alongside Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri. “It is an initial exchange with interested member states.”
The conservative alliance headed by Angela Merkel may splinter in a row over immigration, an ally of the German chancellor said on Friday (June 15), as the third party in her fragile government suggested its patience was wearing thin, while the leaders of France and Italy meet after a week of confrontation.
She also rejected suggestions that strains within her coalition over migration policy had brought her government to the brink of collapse. “I am working for the coalition to do its tasks as set out in the coalition agreement,” she said. “We have lots more to do.”
