Mertz: Irregular migration is one of the biggest problems of the European Union

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at the European Union summit on Friday that there is still a lot to be done about immigration despite the decline in the number of arrivals to the bloc and the new European asylum rules.

“At the moment, almost every head of state and government in the bloc sees it this way: We have a huge problem that places a huge burden on our societies,” Merz said at the European Union summit in Brussels.

He added that he explicitly agreed with this view, noting that “irregular migration is one of the biggest problems we face in Europe.”

Meretz's statements came on the sidelines of a discussion on the lessons learned from the migration crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

It is noteworthy that at the end of last July, an estimated 80,000 migrants entered the Spanish enclave from Morocco. According to the government in Madrid, most of the arrivals returned voluntarily to Morocco within a very short period. At least 140 people died trying to reach Ceuta.

In this context, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker called at the summit for the need to have more legal options to confront mass arrivals such as what happened in Ceuta, especially the right not to accept asylum applications in such circumstances.