16 EU Leaders To Attend Migrant Crisis Talks: Official

The leaders of 16 EU countries have now signalled their interest in joining a migrant crisis summit in Brussels Sunday aimed at finding a solution to who deals with asylum seekers.

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jun, 2018 ) :The leaders of 16 EU countries have now signalled their interest in joining a migrant crisis summit in Brussels Sunday aimed at finding a solution to who deals with asylum seekers.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker called the meeting amid fresh divisions in Europe over who should process the migrants first, with Italy and Greece who have taken in the bulk of the arrivals saying that their EU peers must to more to share the burden.

"We started initially with a group of eight," European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said.

"We stand now at 16 countries having signalled their interest to join this informal meeting," he added without naming them.

Winterstein said the initial eight are Belgium, the Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg.

Officials said earlier this week that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat have all confirmed their attendance.

European sources also said the leaders of frontline states Italy and Greece will also be involved, as well as Austria and Bulgaria, who are the incoming and outgoing holders of the EU's rotating six-month presidency.

The leaders of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia -- the four countries that refuse migrants -- said Thursday they would not attend the meeting.