EU countries prepare mini-summit as migration row festers

Leaders from a group of European Union countries, led by Germany and France, will meet Sunday to thrash out possible solutions to a divisive row over migrants.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose own government is in crisis over the management of migrant arrivals, is expected to join the leaders of Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain for "informal talks" at European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday.

The UN refugee agency estimates that around 40,000 people have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, around half the number who had entered at this time in 2017. But even though arrivals are declining, the unity of the 28-nation bloc is being torn apart by a crisis of confidence. Most migrants land in Italy and Greece and those countries feel they have been abandoned by...

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