Europe’s migration crisis is ‘make-or-break’ for the EU, Germany’s Merkel says

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a government declaration at the Bundestag ahead of the upcoming E.U. and NATO summits on June 28, 2018 in Berlin, Germany.

The future of the European Union (EU) rests on the bloc’s ability to find a diplomatic answer to the migration crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.

EU leaders are meeting in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday and Friday to try to wrangle a solution on migration, with the issue leaving Merkel’s own political fate hanging precariously in the balance.

“Europe faces many challenges, but that of migration could become the make-or-break one for the EU,” Merkel said during a passionate address to the German parliament.

“Either we manage it, so others in Africa believe that we are guided by values and believe in multilateralism, not unilateralism, or nobody will believe any longer in the system of values that has made us strong… That is why it is so important,” she added.