BRUSSELS: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz took part in a meeting of EU immigration hawks in Brussels Thursday, participants confirmed, in a sign of Berlin’s hardening stance on migration.
It marked the first time a German leader has attended the gathering, which has become a stable fixture on the sidelines of EU summits of the bloc’s leaders over the past year.
“We’re delighted that Germany is on board for the first time,“ Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said ahead of the meeting he described as a “pressure group” pushing to make the European Union’s migration policy “much stricter”.
Co-organised by Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands, the migration talks were attended by more than a dozen of the bloc’s 27 leaders as well as European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Crystallising the growing influence of the hard right within the bloc, it has served as a platform for hardliners to push the commission to pass new rules to reduce arrivals and boost deportations.
Germany’s conservative-led government, which took power in May, has pursued a crackdown on irregular immigration, seeking to combat the growing appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
As part of the new strategy, it emerged this week that Berlin plans to suspend funding for non-government groups that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.
The foreign ministry under the previous coalition, headed by the Greens party minister Annalena Baerbock, had provided substantial financial support for such groups.
New Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday defended the decision against criticism from migrant rescue groups, arguing that it was “the right thing to do”.
Germany remains “committed to humanity and will always work to help people wherever they are suffering”, Wadephul said in Berlin.
“But I do not believe it is the task of the foreign ministry to fund this form of sea rescue at this time.”
Instead, he said Germany should focus on “using diplomatic means to ensure that such waves of migration can be reduced”.
