Merkel calls for unity ahead of emergency refugee summit

German chancellor Angela Merkel called on European leaders to accept joint responsibility for the continent’s worst refugee crisis since the Second World War.

Ahead of Wednesday’s emergency EU summit, Merkel told a gathering of the Verdi trade union that Germany will play its role but cannot shoulder the task alone.

“Germany is willing to help. But it is not just a German challenge, but one for all of Europe,” she said, while warning that her country could not shelter people moving for economic reasons rather than to flee war or persecution.

“We are a big country. We are a strong country. But to make out as if we alone can solve all the social problems of the world would not be realistic,” she said.

The foreign ministers of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Latvia will hold talks on Monday with their counterpart from Luxembourg, which currently holds the EU presidency, aimed at addressing divides that have arisen between neighbouring states.

Following a weekend visit to Jordan and Egypt, European Council president Donald Tusk said on Sunday that the EU must help Syrian refugees find a better life closer to home.

Over 500,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year, a phenomenon which the EU has struggled to find a unified response to and which has sparked diplomatic rows among its eastern member states.

On Sunday, Hungary erected a steel gate and fence posts at a border crossing with Croatia, after its neighbour funnelled at least 15,000 refugees to Hungary, which then passed them on to Austria.

EU interior ministers will meet on Tuesday, where they are expected to agree on a voluntary relocation scheme to redistribute 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece across the EU. 

At least 13 asylum seekers, including several children, died when their dinghy collided with a ferry off Turkey on Sunday. The boat was headed to the Greek island off Lesbos.

In a second incident, Greece's coastguard said 26 people were feared missing from a boat, also off Lesbos.