German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed her Austrian colleague Sebastian Kurz for a one-on-one meeting before the informal Salzburg summit next week in Berlin on Sunday.
“Of course there [at the upcoming informal summit in Salzburg] the topic of migration is a very important topic. We share the main focus of the Austrian presidency – namely to take care of the outer border protection. This is where Jean-Claude Juncker made further proposals which I welcome eminently.”
“It is an informal summit, that means there will not be any decisions. This provides more space for discussions.”
“As already said there are two big topics which we will discuss. On the one hand Brexit, where we have the same judgement – that we have to try everything to avoid a hard Brexit.”
“On the other hand the topic of migration, where we would like to support the proposals of Jean-Claude Juncker, what has been been demanded by us for a long time – to strengthen Frontex.”
“Furthermore we will call for a summit with African states in December, together with the President of the African Union [Paul] Kagame, where we will not only actively focus the question of migration – that is always the focus.”