The EU-Turkey summit will take place early March followed by the regular EU summit on March 17. Both meetings are expected to reveal whether Europe managed to reduce the refugee influx through cooperation with Turkey.
Merkel is rapidly losing her authority within the CDU due to her policy of open doors. In recent days, an unprecedented number of her party's top members have expressed criticism of Merkel's position, raising serious concerns about the future political career of the Chancellor.
For instance, a number of CDU party members called for the introduction of daily quotas as well as the construction of border centers for refugees.
Europe, and particularly Germany, has been trying to cope with a large-scale refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty.
EU border agency Frontex recorded over 1.83 million illegal border crossings into the European Union in 2015. About 1.1 million refugees arrived in Germany in 2015.
