Merkel warns against border closures, says to fight for EU – Turkey

Germany’s Angela Merkel vowed to push for implementation of the EU’s migration deal with Turkey at a summit this week, saying the alternative of closing borders to limit the flow of refugees to Europe would have dire consequences.
EU leaders meet on Thursday to discuss the migration crisis, with the German chancellor looking increasingly isolated with her demands for a fair distribution of migrants among EU members and for Turkey to cooperate to stem the flow of people. At a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Merkel said the summit would not agree on new quotas for refugees across Europe, saying this would be “laughable” given that fewer than 1,000 have been relocated under an existing scheme.
Rather, she said it was about whether the EU-Turkey pact could successfully tackle the causes of migration or whether the bloc should “give up and instead close the Greek-Macedonian-Bulgarian border with all the consequences that would have for Greece, the European Union and the Schengen zone.”