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Merkel: EU must work with Turkey on migrants

Prime Minister Netanyahu met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday in a Government-to-Government (G2G) meeting and expressed the significance of German-Israeli cooperation.

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Merkel prefaced her pre-summit remarks at Wednesday’s Bundestag session by urging Britain to remain an “active member” of the 28-nation European Union.

Mrs Merkel said that if Turkey succeeds in holding back refugees, it would give European Union breathing space to set up registration systems and border guards along Greece’s long, unprotected coastline, where most of the refugees have been arriving.

But it would take time for “all measures we have agreed in the past weeks and months in Europe to have an effect”.

On the eve of an EU summit, Merkel said “the main thing now is to have a common stance on how to secure the external borders, and here the EU-Turkey plan offers a good solution”.

“Germany will make its contribution so that a result that satisfies everyone can be achieved, if possible already at the summit beginning tomorrow”, Merkel said.

In a bid to prevent this, EU President Donald Tusk has negotiated a detailed reform proposal with London, addressing concerns raised over sovereignty, social security payments, economic governance and competitiveness.

Turkey hosts more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees.

“If I would say now that we have a plan B, this would indicate a kind of willingness of the commission to envisage seriously that Britain could leave the European Union”, Juncker told a debate at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Not only do Germany and Israel share values, Netanyahu said, but technological innovations as well.

He said it was the job of a head of government to stand by their policies even under pressure and suggested Merkel would outlast all her critics.

“The British and Irish economies are largely intertwined”, Hannigan said Tuesday as he called on European nations to “do all in our power to ensure that the United Kingdom remains within the EU”.

The Sri Lankan President, who is on a three-day official visit to one of the economically powerful state in the European Union, is expected to hold extensive discussions with German officials on stimulating the economic cooperation between the two countries.

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The leaders of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia said on Monday there should be tighter controls on the borders of Balkan countries neighbouring Greece if attempts to limit the numbers from Turkey to Greece failed.

German Chancellor Angela Merke and the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu talk prior to a lunch as part of a one day governmental meeting at the chancellery in Berlin Germany Tuesday Feb. 16 2016