BRUSSELS, JUNE 28, 2018 (News Wires) - Under severe pressure from conservative allies at home, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on European leaders on Thursday to forge a common approach to migration, calling it a "make or break" issue for Europe. Merkel was speaking in the German parliament before a European Union summit that starts later in the day and is expected to be dominated by migration at a time when right-wing parties are gaining strength across the bloc. "Europe faces many challenges, but that of migration could become the make-or-break one for the EU," said Merkel, whose political future is threatened by a backlash against her migration policies from hardline conservatives in Bavaria. At the two-day summit, leaders will agree measures to restrict arrivals across the Mediterranean, spend more on fighting illegal immigration and step up cooperation to prevent refugees and migrants from moving within the bloc, according to a draft statement. But three years after more than a million people entered Europe - many of them refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East - leaders remain divided over how to handle asylum seekers. Merkel is under pressure from the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), which faces a regional election in the autumn, to stem immigration to Germany more aggressively even though arrivals have fallen sharply from their 2015 peak. With Bavaria the main German entry point for migrants, the CSU has said it will start rejecting those registered in other European states at the border from next month unless Merkel delivers a deal in Brussels. That seems unlikely given divisions between the EU's 28 member states. But Merkel indicated in parliament she would pursue a "coalition of the willing" by trying to strike bilateral agreements with countries such as Greece and Italy. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the Financial Times he was open to a deal with Berlin to curtail "secondary migration" of refugees who arrive at the EU's southern border before heading north. Italy may prove more difficult. Its new government has rejected any moves that would see it handle more people.
