Reuters
January 21, 2016
U.S.
President Barack Obama has promised German Chancellor Angela Merkel to
"substantially" support efforts to ease the refugee crisis in the Middle
East and Europe, a
German government spokesman said on Thursday.
German
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has called for "billions of euros"
in new money to be transferred to states that border Syria, saying
Europe had to realize
that solving the crisis would cost "a lot more" than previously
envisaged.
Obama
and Merkel spoke by telephone on Thursday evening and the chancellor
set out the goals of the planned donor conference for Syrian refugees
which she will co-host
in London on Feb. 4, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
"The president promised that the U.S. government would contribute substantially," Seibert said in a statement.
The
spokesman added Obama and Merkel agreed that there could only be a
political solution for the Syrian crisis, as well as for the stand-off
in Ukraine.
Merkel
is under pressure to limit the number of new migrants, which reached
1.1 million last year alone, eroding her popularity and fuelling support
for an anti-immigration
party.
Leaders
meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos said on Thursday that the European
Union could unravel if member states fail to agree a common approach to
the refugee crisis
and security challenges in the next few months.
Merkel
has promised to "measurably reduce" arrivals this year, but has refused
to introduce a cap, saying it would be impossible to enforce without
closing German borders.
Instead,
she has tried to convince European partners to take on quotas of
refugees, pushed for reception centers to be built on Europe's external
borders, and led an EU
campaign to convince Turkey to keep refugees from entering the bloc.
EU
leaders have pledged 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to Turkey to help
care for Syrian refugees, as part of measures aimed at reducing the
numbers of refugees leaving
Turkey and heading for Europe.
However, Italy has blocked this funding, senior EU officials said.
German-Turkish
government consultations on Friday in Berlin are expected to address
the issue of helping Turkey with the cost of hosting migrants.
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