"We have reached an agreement after very intense negotiations," Seehofer was quoted as saying by AFP after hours of talks.
Germany's Interior Minister has dropped his threat to resign after tense negotiations with the German Chancellor's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), adding that the two conservative parties had tightened border controls, as he requested.
According to Reuters, Merkel, in turn, said Berlin would hold undocumented migrants registered in other EU states in special transit centers. Merkel reportedly stressed that the compromise between the CSU and CDU would secure the principle of freedom of movement within the EU while allowing Germany to take "national measures" to limit migrant arrivals.
"We want, on the one hand to set up transit center in Germany and from there carry out returns in agreement with countries from which asylum seekers come and where they are already registered," Merkel was quoted as saying by Reuters, adding that, "as such, the spirit of partnership in the European Union is preserved and at the same time an important step to order and control secondary migration and that's why i think that we have found a good compromise after tough negotiations and difficult days."
"It is exactly what was important for me," Merkel said, noting that the deal regulated only the secondary migration, as quoted by the Der Tagesspiegel newspaper on Monday.
On Thursday, the European Council summit agreed on several aspects of EU migration policy, including the establishment of "regional disembarkation platforms in close cooperation with relevant third countries" and controlled centers in the EU member states to process asylum applications. The resettlement or relocation of migrants across the bloc is expected to be done on voluntary basis amid the lack of consensus.
