'Migration could decide Europe's destiny'

Angela Merkel. Pic/AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned yesterday that the migration challenge could determine Europe's fate, hours ahead of a Brussels summit where EU leaders are expected to clash over the way forward.

"Europe has many challenges, but migration could end up determining Europe's destiny," she said. The path the EU chooses could decide if the bloc is viewed by others as a credible defender of the values it espouses, she said.

Europe can decide to "overcome the challenge in a way that people in Africa or elsewhere believe that we are guided by our values, and that we take a multilateral rather than a unilateral approach," Merkel added.

The German leader is also battling a domestic rebellion over her decision in 2015 to open Germany's borders to asylum seekers fleeing war and misery in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. If a deal cannot be reached between all 28 of the bloc, Merkel said that a compromise must be found among "a coalition of the willing".

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