EU leaders to meet for emergency refugee talks
European Council President Donald Tusk has called an emergency summit of European leaders to try and tackle the refugee crisis, it was announced on Thursday.
Tusk made the announcement through Twitter and set the date for Wednesday 23rd of September at 6 pm.
I convene an extra #EUCO on Wednesday 23 September at 18h to discuss how to deal with the refugee crisis
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) September 17, 2015
The ex-Polish premier consented to a demand made by Chancellor Angela Merkel after a meeting of EU interior ministers on Monday failed to reach an agreement on relocating 120,000 around EU member states.
On Tuesday Merkel called for a special summit saying "it is a problem for the entire European Union and therefore we argued for a special EU summit to be held next week. Donald Tusk will look into that."
At the meeting on Monday in Brussels ministers could only agree on quotas for a more modest relocation of 40,000 refugees from Italy and Greece which was proposed in May.
Germany had reacted to the failure furiously with vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel saying Europe had disgraced itself, while Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere threatened financial punishment against the eastern European states who had blocked a resolution.
Comments
See Also
Tusk made the announcement through Twitter and set the date for Wednesday 23rd of September at 6 pm.
I convene an extra #EUCO on Wednesday 23 September at 18h to discuss how to deal with the refugee crisis
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) September 17, 2015
The ex-Polish premier consented to a demand made by Chancellor Angela Merkel after a meeting of EU interior ministers on Monday failed to reach an agreement on relocating 120,000 around EU member states.
On Tuesday Merkel called for a special summit saying "it is a problem for the entire European Union and therefore we argued for a special EU summit to be held next week. Donald Tusk will look into that."
At the meeting on Monday in Brussels ministers could only agree on quotas for a more modest relocation of 40,000 refugees from Italy and Greece which was proposed in May.
Germany had reacted to the failure furiously with vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel saying Europe had disgraced itself, while Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere threatened financial punishment against the eastern European states who had blocked a resolution.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.