Sweden and Germany share asylum concerns
February 26, 2015
Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven met Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday to hold talks on migration and integration concerns shared by the two countries, which currently take in more asylum seekers from Syria than the rest of the EU combined.
“Germany and Sweden face common issues with migration and integration”the German leader said at a joint press conference following the pair’s one-to-one meeting.The leaders also discussed the Ukraine crisis, Greece’s financial problems and international security in the wake of the recent terror attacks in France and Denmark. Describing the recent agreement to extend Greece’s international bailout as a “starting point” for talks with the new left-led Greek government, Merkel said she was pleased that “in the last few days we managed to show we are all able to make compromises”. Sweden’s Prime Minister dubbed Russian aggression in Ukraine “the gravest security situation since the Cold War” and said that Sweden backed “preparing new sanctions if needed” as well as helping to “support Ukraine economically”.