Merkel says EU won’t reach deal on migration this week

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said 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. She will continue to pursue bilateral agreements, Reuters reported. “There will be no solution for the whole asylum package i.e. for all seven directives, by Friday,” Merkel said, 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,” she said in Berlin. “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.