BRUSSELS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday called for a European solution to the intractable migration issue, no matter among all 28 member states of the European Union(EU) or just some of them.
Speaking to the press upon his arrival at the migration summit in Brussels, Macron underlined that there are still a lot of secondary movements of migrants within the EU, causing political crises.
He said the EU needs a European solution which is "only built on the cooperation between member states, whether it's a cooperation at 28 or among several states that decide to advance together on this topic."
"This cooperation requires each's responsibility and the spirit of solidarity for, obviously, sharing the burden and the pressure," he added.
Macron's remarks were in a similar vein with that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who upon her arrival at the summit conceded that there is still no solution to the migration problem involving all 28 member states and thus she is in favor of bilateral or trilateral agreements as a way out of the migration crisis.
The informal summit, convened by European Commission President Jean Claude-Juncker, is expected to lay the groundwork for the formal one slated for June 28-29, when the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) will feature prominently on the agenda.
The informal summit, aimed at "finding European solutions to the migration and asylum issues", is an open-ended roundtable discussion, following which there will be neither conclusions nor press conference.
Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is in a bitter falling-out with its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), whose leader Horst Seehofer, also in the post as interior minister, put forward a plan to turn back asylum seekers who were already registered in another EU state.
Merkel has been under intense pressure to find a European alternative within two weeks to the CSU's plan, which, if adopted, is likely to prompt a domino effect and put the visa-free movement in the Schengen area in jeopardy.
Despite heated political row over migration, the arrivals of migrants or refugees to Europe have been on a downward trend in the past three years.
According to the data of the International Organization for Migrants (IOM), 52,240 migrants or refugees arrived in Europe as of June 20 this year, compared to 186,768 in 2017 and 390,432 in 2016.
The number of migrants dead or missing in their journey crossing the Mediterranean also dropped sharply. Some 934 migrants are confirmed to have died or be missing thus far this year, while the figure stood at 3,116 in 2017 and 5,143 in 2016.
The EU struck a cash-for-repatriation deal with Turkey in March 2016 and engaged Libyan coast guard in cracking down on migrant trafficking, following the peak year of 2015 which saw more than 1 million irregular migrants flocking to Europe via different routes.
