Merkel says must ‘very quickly’ reach an accord with Turkey

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders will move swiftly to seek an accord with Turkey over refugees, including a negotiated number of migrants to be taken into the European Union.

EU and Turkish leaders this month will “very quickly discuss a distribution of the burden, illegality and possibly a set number of refugees that we will take into the European Union,” Merkel said in a speech in Berlin on Thursday.

Refugees within the EU must then be distributed across the 28-member bloc, which “unfortunately isn’t guaranteed yet,” Merkel said. A focus at the EU-Turkey summit will be the maritime border between Turkey and Greece, Merkel said.

“It can’t be that the Aegean, the small sea zone between Greece and Turkey, is dominated by smugglers and kidnappers and not a rational border system,” Merkel said. “That has to change.”

[Bloomberg]