Merkel says no EU-wide deal on migration to be reached this week

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that an EU-wide solution for the migration issue would not be reached at a summit of the bloc's leaders later this week and added that she would continue to pursue bilateral agreements.

"There will be no solution for the whole asylum package i.e. for all seven directives, by Friday," Merkel told a news conference with the visiting Spanish prime minister, adding that more time was needed to work on two directives.

"For this reason I spoke about working with countries that are willing on all dimensions of the migration policy - the Spanish prime minister spoke about the external dimension and I spoke about the internal dimension and in this spirit we will have further talks in the coming days," Merkel added.